A most challenging year for a vintage full of promise.
A most challenging year for a vintage full of promise.
Crafted from grapes that experienced an unusually high risk of mildew and late ripening, 2024 proved a difficult balancing act. More than ever before, the precocious nature of the estate’s terroirs and the ability of its vines to self-regulate proved invaluable in realizing the surprising potential of this vintage.
A particularly mild winter—the wettest since 2000, with 950 millimeters of rainfall between the end of the 2023 harvest and April 1, 2024—led to homogenous, early bud break in late March.
Exceptional rainfall continued through spring, as did the ongoing threat of mildew, the latter partially contained by unseasonably low temperatures.
Damp, cool weather slowed the vines’ development until they were no longer ahead of schedule. A first phase of warm weather brought on flowering in late May.
But due to earlier cold weather, the vine was nonetheless affected by coulure, which decreased the number of grapes in each cluster, and millerandage, which resulted in grapes of very uneven size. Flowering augured relatively low yields, and these looser clusters would help maintain the health of the vines and foster even ripening.
Given the context, vegetal cover was maintained late into the season. Coupled with cool temperatures, it helped lower nitrogen levels, thereby stimulating the secondary metabolism of the vine and the synthesis of polyphenols responsible for tannins and grape color.
Abundant rainfall in May and some storm activity in June were followed by a long period of dry weather from July 13 to August 29, which fostered lasting, qualitative water stress.
Temperatures varied widely between nighttime (falling below 10 °C on August 19 and 22!) and daytime, favoring the synthesis of anthocyanins and leading to a slow rise in sugar and drop in acidity. Late veraison confirmed the need for patience as we waited for the conditions necessary for the estate’s grapes to ripen fully.
50 mm of rainfall in early September allowed the vines to rehydrate themselves without endangering their health. Alarming weather forecasts the weekend of September 7 generated fears that additional rainfall would threaten the quality of the harvest. This was followed by a salutary lull between September 12 and 20 that allowed us to wait several precious days for the grapes to reach their optimal levels of maturity.
Harvest began with the old Merlot vines planted on the estate’s gravelly terrace—the earliest of the grapes to ripen—on September 23, followed by the old Cabernet Sauvignon vines on September 30.
The success of the 2024 vintage often hung by a thread, but the incredible resiliency of our terroirs, the old age of our vines and their moderate yields gave rise to a most promising vintage indeed!
