2024 Bordeaux Vintage

The 2024 season began under water. The Bordeaux station recorded 478 mm of rain from December to March, against an average of 323 mm, on top of 436 mm in October and November 2023, and the near-constant rain made winter work in the vineyard very difficult. The winter was also mild. Bud break averaged April 6 on the reference plots, right on the ten-year normal, and the temperature reached 30.5 C in Bordeaux on April 13. From April 15 the cold set in, with morning frosts on April 19, 22 and 23; damage was moderate overall but heavier, sometimes total, in frost-prone sectors in the east of the department. The first mildew symptoms appeared in the third week of April. May brought 126 mm of rain at Merignac against a 71 mm average, with sunshine 20 to 30 percent below normal, and spring 2024 ranked as the third wettest since 1959. Flowering was spread out, late and damp, with mid-flowering on June 10, a week later than 2023, and coulure and millerandage followed, particularly on Merlot. Hail struck Fronsac, Saint-Estephe and parts of the southern Medoc, and three localized hail storms hit the northern Medoc in June. The summer was the third driest in 20 years. Full soils slowed veraison: mid-veraison came on August 16, three weeks later than 2023, against a 2000 to 2020 average, and mildew pressure stayed very high until veraison ended. Red ripening began around August 25, about ten days later than 2023. September was cooler and wetter than average, with 58 mm falling between September 1 and 10 and more rain after September 21. Merlot picking began around September 20 under unstable skies, Cabernet followed in calmer weather and finished in mid-October, and the threat of rain, which arrived on October 17, brought harvest to an end. Overall it was a very wet and relatively cool vintage. The average yield was 36 hl/ha, the smallest crop since 1991.

The 2024 average was 36 hl/ha, the smallest crop since 1991, with huge variation between estates: Latour came in at 11 hl/ha and Lafite at 32 hl/ha. Appellation averages include 29.5 hl/ha in Pauillac, 33.1 hl/ha in Margaux, 40.8 hl/ha in Saint-Emilion and 28.4 hl/ha in Pomerol. Colin Hay of The Drinks Business argues that the small total owes rather more to the shrinking area under vine than to vineyard yields, that Pauillac and Saint-Estephe were the worst hit in the Medoc, that Saint-Emilion held up much better than Pomerol, and that Pessac-Leognan came in well above its 10-year average, close to 40 hl/ha for reds and over 42 hl/ha for whites. Coulure was the single biggest cause of low yields, hitting Merlot and, unusually, Cabernet Sauvignon, while coulure and millerandage, mildew and grey rot together explain how widely yields varied.

Merlot was caught by the September rains, while the later-ripening Cabernets fared better under dry October skies. Cheval Blanc picked 18 hectares in two and a half days, a job that usually takes seven, while Pontet-Canet waited longer than most, starting Merlot on September 26 and Cabernet on October 4, the day Lafite finished. Left Bank blends generally carried more Cabernet than usual. Colin Hay judged that estates able to use densimetric sorting were clearly advantaged. In the cellar, producers used gentle extractions, longer macerations and some saignee, plus reverse osmosis at a few estates including Leoville Poyferre and Lagrange. Potential alcohol was low, and many properties chaptalized; the practice was widespread. For the dry whites, the first Sauvignon around Sauternes was picked on August 20, about ten days later than 2023, with most other areas waiting until the first days of September after rain on August 28 and 29.

The ISVV describes the young Merlot wines as fruity and aromatic, without the density or power of recent vintages but pleasant and accessible, with extra flesh on the best Libournais terroirs and vegetal notes and dilution often showing on late sites and waterlogged soils. Cabernet Sauvignon that could wait for the early October calm brings color, structure and depth, with real successes on the great gravel terroirs. Most alcohols run between 12.8 and 13.5 percent, with pH between 3.50 and 3.75, and Decanter compares the reds to 2021, 2014 and 2001. Chateau Margaux winemaker Philippe Bascaules told Decanter the grand vin's IPT of 63 is 'more like the 1996 vintage.' The whites were the easier success. The white grapes were significantly less sweet and more acidic than in recent vintages, with the exception of 2014, and showed intense aromatic potential. Semillon was picked about a week after Sauvignon, from August 28. In Sauternes, nearly 100 mm of rain fell in a fortnight from August 29, setting up early noble rot, and a second trie followed in early October.

Decanter rated the vintage 3 out of 5 overall, and Cheval Blanc's Pierre-Olivier Clouet described it as a 'war'. Decanter's Georgie Hindle named Pontet-Canet, L'Eglise Clinet, Les Carmes Haut-Brion and Chateau Margaux as the standout reds, with Valandraud Blanc, Pavillon Blanc, Domaine de Chevalier and Malartic-Lagraviere among the whites and Coutet and Suduiraut among the sweet wines.