#35 Understanding Champagne Harvest 2026 with David Chatillon and Maxime Toubart

<p>Today we&#39;re looking at the 2026 harvest through two quite different, but deeply interconnected, perspectives: the vineyard and the cellar.</p><p>My guests are David Chatillon and Maxime Toubart, two men who sit at the centre of some of the most important decisions affecting Champagne today.</p><p> David Chatillon is President of the Union des Maisons de Champagne, or UMC, the organisation representing Champagne&#39;s Houses. He knows the organisation particularly well, having served as its Director General from 2007 before becoming President in 2022, and being re-elected in 2025. </p><p> Maxime Toubart is a Champagne winegrower and President of the Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne, or SGV, which represents the interests of Champagne&#39;s growers. A longstanding advocate for the vineyard, Maxime was re-elected President of the SGV in March 2026 at a particularly interesting moment for the region, as Champagne confronts changing global demand alongside increasingly complex climatic conditions. </p><p>Together, David and Maxime also serve as co-presidents of the Comité Champagne, representing the two sides of Champagne&#39;s interprofessional structure: the Maisons and the vignerons. It&#39;s a relationship that becomes particularly important at harvest, when decisions around yields, reserves and the longer-term needs of the market have consequences right across the appellation. </p><p>So today, we&#39;re going to unpack the 2026 harvest: what actually happened in the vineyards, why its quality may be considerably more exciting than some early commentary suggested, how Champagne arrives at a commercial yield, and perhaps most importantly, what the market is telling Champagne about how much wine it actually needs to produce.</p><p><strong>About your host:</strong></p><p><a href="https://saraunderdown.com/"><strong>Sara Underdown</strong></a><strong> is a leading and trusted voice for champagne in Australia. </strong></p><p>In 2018 she founded VINE &amp; BUBBLE, an online champagne publication, luxury events and travel company.</p><p>Sara is a <strong>Dame Chevalier of L’Ordre des Côteaux de Champagne</strong> and has been recognised through the prestigious Vin de Champagne Awards, the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards and the Born Digital Wine Awards. In addition to writing for VINE &amp; BUBBLE, she writes regularly for numerous drinks publications, magazines and newspapers. Sara is also the official <a href="https://star