France is expecting a poor champagne year.

Severe winter and spring frosts were blamed by a champagne trade association in Epernay for a likely meager yield of the sparkling wine. About 25,000 of the 62,000 acres planted with vines in the Champagne region will produce far less than usual and in some cases no wine at all, the association said. But because it takes three years for the bubbly wine to reach market and producers have ample stocks after recent bumper crops, good harvests in the next two years would offset the 1985 shortage and forestall a shortage and attendant sharp price increases.