Bordeaux 2024 vintage report

There’s an old joke that Bordeaux has a “vintage of the century” every decade, and a “vintage of the decade” every couple of years. The 2024 vintage is neither of those things, though it’s none the worse for it. We’ve had our fair share of blockbuster vintages over the last decade or so, and there’s absolutely a time and a place for them. The growing conditions in 2024 meant that this was never going to be a big, powerful vintage. But for many of us, that’s not what Bordeaux is about.

At its best, Bordeaux is about balance, and well-made 2024s certainly have that. The harmony between fruit and acidity is reminiscent of what you’d have found a generation ago, but the refinement of the tannins and purity of the fruit are clearly of modern Bordeaux.

Early reports framed 2024 as a cool and wet year yielding light, rather simple wines. The reality is more complex, as our initial visits and tastings have revealed. The quality and style will vary widely, depending on the terroir of each château and how each responded to the challenges of the season.

Winter and spring

This was not an easy season to manage, by all accounts. Several châteaux reported a year’s worth of rain in the six months leading up to budbreak in mid-to-late March 2024. Dominique Arangoïts of Cos d’Estournel said it was the rainiest winter since his arrival in 2000. The rain made vineyards hard to work, with certain parcels almost impossible to enter. Indeed, the rain and accompanying heat made for optimal conditions for the development of powdery mildew.

Recent vintages including 2023, 2021 and 2018 have seen considerable mildew attacks. Many producers are better equipped now to tackle the threat, though the pressure was on in 2024. This was not helped by the rain, and a splashing effect may have further spread mildew spores from the previous season. Life was especially difficult for practitioners of organic and biodynamic viticulture, where certification prohibits the use of most fungicides. So-called “Bordeaux mixture” (bouillie bordelaise), a mix of copper and sulphur, is virtually the only tool available. This is applied to the surface of the plant as a spray, unlike conventional fungicides which penetrate the plant. Bordeaux mixture has the glaring weakness of being easily washed away in rainy conditions, however, neutralising its protective effects and mandating another application.

The better-resourced châteaux deployed people immediately to fight off the threat as and when needed. Some estates sprayed this mixture up to three times more than usual. Working weekends, spraying multiple times a week or on consecutive days were often necessary. Many châteaux won’t have been able to act so quickly or forcefully, however. Those that could were able to keep the mildew at bay, and there’ll be no impact on quality – be that due to prevention or treatment of an outbreak, or to strict sorting later. Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse at Beauséjour estimates that she lost 35-40% of the crop to mildew in the vineyard and later removed a further 15% at sorting. This additional work comes at both a financial and environmental price. One producer estimated that their 2024 cost 40% more to make than their 2023.

Flowering took place in late May and early June, as normal, though it was slow. The cool weather affected pollination, with poor fruit-set and, consequently, uneven ripening. David Suire of Larcis Ducasse reported considerable unevenness, with 17% of the final berries either under- or overripe. There were high instances of coulure, where the flowers fail to develop into grapes; and millerandage, where grapes develop but fertilisation isn’t uniform – with varying ripeness levels and very small berries. This called for extremely strict selection in the vineyard and later in the winery; where the mildew was successfully controlled, the complicated flowering accounts for the low yields of the vintage. Pessac-Léognan appears to have fared better than the Médoc and the Right Bank, with both Domaine de Chevalier and Haut-Bailly reporting favourable weather and homogenous flowering.

Summer

“The vintage could’ve been a catastrophe if there was a cold and rainy summer,” said Gabriel Vialard of Haut-Bailly. Thankfully, though, the summer months brought some reprieve. There wasn’t much rain, with July and August around 50% below the 30-year average. Conditions were dry and temperatures rose, reaching almost exactly the average level of the past 30 years. There were none of the extreme heat spikes of recent vintages. Disease pressure dissipated – though Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse was still fighting off mildew at Beauséjour in the second half of June.

Véraison, when the grapes change colour and accelerate their ripening, was also variable. The process took three weeks at Larcis Ducasse, and Beau-Sejour Bécot reported major variations in the pace of colour-change. At Cos d’Estournel, some Merlot plots experienced blockage, where drought stress causes the vine to stop photosynthesis and temporarily cease ripening. This proved beneficial, Dominique Arangoïts reported, as it slowed down the accumulation of sugar and led to a lower potential-alcohol level, helping achieve balance in the wine. Some estates chose to de-leaf, on one or both sides of the canopy, to maximise the grapes’ exposure to the late summer sun and aid ripening. Most producers attributed the success of the vintage to the favourable conditions of summer.

From the end of August into mid-September, there was more rain. Cos d’Estournel reported 53mm of rain from 29th August to 12th September, having had a total of just 11mm for the preceding 47 days. The rain was less persistent than earlier in the season, however, alternating between dry, sunny days and heavy rainfall. Some estates and appellations were better equipped than others to handle the rain; the soil composition and topography of each vineyard were key.

Cabernet and Merlot on gravel and other free-draining soils coped well. Vines on clay, especially Merlot, took in some excess water which led the grapes to swell to varying degrees. Several estates on the Right Bank, including Angélus and Beau-Séjour Bécot, cited the phenomenon of battance (surface-sealing) on their clay soils, however. Here, repeated shocks to the surface, such as from summer thunder showers, causes the top layer of the soil to dry and harden – “like concrete”, as Benjamin Laforêt of Angélus described. Subsequent rainfall then mostly runs off the soil, limiting the vines’ water uptake and any dilution or bursting effect on the grapes. Elsewhere, rain this close to harvest led to some dilution.

The threat of botrytis loomed at certain estates. At Léoville Barton, François Brehant underlined the value of experience in dealing with rot. “It’s easier to keep calm when you’ve seen it before; you have little tricks,” he said. David Suire offered a similar comment, taking the botrytis threat in St Emilion as a learning exercise for the younger vignerons in his team: “It’s not easy to walk the vines and see botrytis, but we have to accept it to focus on [the unaffected fruit] we want.” Some properties, like Cos d’Estournel and Palmer, reported no botrytis at all.

In Sauternes, Guiraud picked the grapes for its dry whites from 2nd September. Further north in Pessac-Léognan, Domaine de Chevalier started picking its Sauvignon Blanc on 4th September, finishing its Sémillon by the 19th. In the Médoc, Cos d’Estournel waited until 17th September for its white grapes.

For reds, some châteaux reported a long, drawn-out harvest. Angélus started on 12th September and finished on 6th October. Picking in Pessac-Léognan started a little later, though earlier than others we spoke to in the Médoc and on the Right Bank. Haut-Bailly and Domaine de Chevalier started on 18th and 19th September respectively, while Lynch-Bages and Léoville Barton didn’t get going until 25th September. Ormes de Pez in St Estèphe finished on 10th October, though most estates had finished a few days earlier.

Léoville Barton harvested over eight days, picking a whopping 80,000 vines a day for the last three of them. At Palmer, Thomas Duroux explained that the small crop (22hl/ha) gave them time to harvest when they wanted to: over the course of a month, including two consecutive weekends.

Uneven ripening required very detailed selection in the vineyard and later at the winery, further reducing the crop size. For many, sorting started in the vineyard and continued to the grape reception. At Domaine de Chevalier, the sorting table was operated by no fewer than 40 people – it would’ve been two people 20 years ago, said Rémi Edange.

The best-resourced estates then used optical and densiometric sorters and other sophisticated technologies to eliminate any fruit that was swollen or diluted; under- or overripe; or affected by mildew or botrytis. At Beauséjour, Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse explained that after three rounds of sorting within the vineyard, the team then undertook a strict regimen involving two sorting tables, densiometric sorting and a further hand-sorting to avoid anything but perfect berries.

Some estates chaptalised certain parcels, adding sugar before fermentation to increase the level of potential alcohol and achieve greater balance. Domaine de Chevalier chose to chaptalise its white wines for the first time since 1996.

To counteract any potential dilution, some châteaux carried out saignée, bleeding some of the juice out of the tanks in the early part of the vinification to concentrate the grape must and have a higher skin-to-juice ratio.

Beyond this, the only real story in the cellar is that there isn’t one story. Extraction was typically gentle, in keeping with the general trend for a lighter touch. The use of press wine varied. At L’Evangile, they used no press wine at all for the first time since 2002; Juliette Couderc felt that her press wine was “elegant” – not a bad thing, certainly, but 2024 needed “press wine with more shoulders”. Other estates were happy with their press wine and included normal levels.

Yields overall are down. This is the smallest Bordeaux crop since 1991, with an overall average yield of 35hl/ha. For context, most of the top communes on the Left and Right Banks permit a maximum of 54-57hl/ha, with the catch-all Bordeaux appellation permitting up to 60hl/ha for its red wines. The picture varies considerably, though: we’ve heard of yields as low as 11hl/ha and as high as 50hl/ ha among the Classified Growths.

The red wines have a gentler and more delicate profile than in some recent years. But from our tastings so far, they are not dilute. The summer sun has given phenolic ripeness, with intense purple colours without being dense or opaque. There’s a purity of fruit aromas and flavours, with lots of vibrant red and occasionally darker fruit character. The fruit is ripe, certainly, without overripeness. The tannins, too, are ripe, though they’re gentle, with finesse and delicacy rather than overt power. The few wines we tried with particularly high tannins, concentrated mostly on the Right Bank, were an exception – though those wines were still balanced and harmonious. Alcohol levels are modest, 12.5-13.5% for the most part. The best are charming, fresh and drinkable wines that will give pleasure soon after release while also having the structure to age for 10-15 years or more. Some châteaux drew comparisons to 2001: elegant fine wines without the muscle of blockbuster years – classic-style Claret not to be underestimated.

There are some wonderful dry whites. The slightly cooler summer than recent years has delivered ripe fruit that doesn’t veer heavily into the tropical, exotic end of the spectrum and maintains modest alcohol levels. We’ve tried examples that show fresh, floral notes alongside bright, peachy fruit and refreshing acidity. The dry whites of the Médoc, typically picked later, are a little more ripe, expressive and concentrated, though also very good.

In Sauternes, there was botrytis, but it was uneven and of variable quality, so the sweet wines are good but not at the level of 2022 and 2023.

This is not a vintage where it’s easy to identify independent characteristics for each commune. Conditions across the region seem to have been fairly uniform. It was perhaps a bit drier in Pomerol, and the earlier flowering in Pessac-Léognan was in warmer conditions, so yields are potentially higher there. More relevant in 2024, and arguably more important than usual, is the ability of each château’s soils to adapt to the very dry conditions of July and early August and then the September rainfall. The topography of each vineyard was important: drying winds, slopes or quickly draining soils were very influential. Many producers are very pleased with their result, especially after the challenges of the early part of the year.

It should be emphasised that those producers who didn’t, or couldn’t, take timely decisions early on, or make the appropriate selections at harvest, will not have made wines of the same standard. Max Lalondrelle and our Buying team will be focusing on a smaller range than usual this year – choosing to offer only those estates they feel have struck the right balance in 2024.