Mother Nature Delivers A Humdinger Of A Champagne Harvest Just When We Need It Most

Here is some honest-to-god genuinely good positive happy delightful alcohol news, which doubles as a convenient excuse to pop the bottle of bubbly you've got hanging out in your fridge: this year's harvest in France's Champagne regions is expected to be one of the best of the last 10 years.

The New York Post reports that the harvest, which typically begins in September, has already kicked off, and a rainy winter and hot summer mean that the crop is expected to be both high-yield and high-quality. That, in turn, should lead to an increase in production as well; the Post suggest it could go up as much as 56 percent compared to last year.

The Champagne winegrowers' union believes that the region's vineyards will harvest up to 35,000 pounds of grapes per 2.5 acres, which "leaves a comfortable margin for producers to use only the best grapes and rebuild reserves used up in recent years." In short: that means better wines, sooner.

"We have never experienced this before in the Champagne region, in terms of quantity and quality," said Jean-Marie Barillere, president of the Champagne houses' union.

"This will enable us to put into cellar amazing wines which will be on the market in three years," he added.

Let's all get ourselves sektlaune and raise a glass to more good wine at a time we could use such things. Cheers.