I can’t seem to find any recent harvest date projections/guesses for Burgundy. I know it’s been a wet and difficult spring and early summer, and early reports suggested a somewhat later harvest than we’ve been used to lately. But it has warmed up a bit (toward normal?) in recent weeks and also forecast more warm weather going forward.
Anyone have an update? We usually overlap the harvest somewhat when we’re there in September and hope to again this year.
Weather has improved, and not a moment too soon, since July 15th. The very first signs of véraison in Pinot Noir are showing up (so far, I have seen photos from Rully, Volnay, Pommard and Echezeaux). For context, véraison was well under way by this time last year. So yes, we’re looking at a mid-September harvest, perhaps a little earlier in September for some of the most advanced Chardonnay sites. The forecast through the next 15 days is very nice with dry weather and temperatures in the high 20s centigrade, but no extreme heat.
We’re getting ready to head over for the next couple of weeks, but it doesn’t look good. Lots of off-and-on rain forecast for the next two weeks. Could be later than thought?
The '24s we’re tasting this week are super good. Yields are down in some places, but not that much in others. Really depends on vineyard slope and soil. The steeper slopes with limestone soil drained the water away just fine and lost 10-20% at most. The lower locations, especially with clay soil, lost 70-80% in many cases due to mildew.
Whites have incredible tension and energy with perfectly ripe fruit. Some are comparing the vintage to '17, which I can see for sure. Reds have an old school cooler style, but drinking well already, again not dissimilar to '17.
He did say that right after fermentation, but since the vintage has gone a somewhat different direction. Tasting them from barrel, I think still tons of tension and electricity like '14, but more body. I’m going to be a huge buyer especially of Lafon and the usual top white producers. The '24 Monty was out of this world epic - even more than usual.
Barrel tasting is always difficult and I’m certainly not an expert. I have found it particularly useful for determining general vintage quality, especially when vintages tend to extremes (both good and bad). With that bit of throat clearing out of the way and the usual caveat (all advice free or your money back), a few quick thoughts on 2024 in Burgundy:
From everything I’ve tasted, it’s very difficult to see how this will be a great or even above average vintage. The wines generally lack concentration and (especially) fruit ripeness, which is consistent with a growing season horribly marred by rain, rot and disease.
I found this particularly true for whites; I think 2021 is a good parallel, with the (reasonable) hope that it is not 2016. I think there is a similar expectation for reds, though I think there is more variance here.
There will be some good wines made (as always), but everyone is constrained by terroir and weather (and farming). It will have taken Herculean efforts to make very good 2024s and the right conditions. My enduring memory of the vintage was a producer leaving mid-visit to put on a suit to go spray a vineyard; all producers have painful memories of having to spray constantly because the rains were so frequent and washed the treatments away.
From a buying perspective, it’s a bit of a moot point – I don’t think I would buy widely and in great quantity, but nature has largely solved that problem because the yields are also so low (it’s sad to see so few barrels on visits, but nice to see so many barrels of 2023). As a producer said at a dinner a few years ago about his 21s – don’t worry about them, you won’t be able to get any. I think 2024 will mostly turn out that way as well.
This is, of course, entirely my opinion – to the extent others have much more positive or negative opinions on the vintage, that’s great. Most conversations I’ve had in Burgundy focused on the difficulties of the vintage with respect to the weather, the rain and the spraying. Most producers are optimistic – but within the scope of what nature gave them.
For me 2025 will be the really interesting vintage. Until August the weather had been spectacular and there were some hopes for a halcyon vintage – until the late rain in August and September. The variance in picking dates will mean some fascinating differences in the wines of the vintage: some domaines had their paulees before other domaines had started picking at all. Judging producers based on picking dates can be dangerous (“I pick when my fruit is ripe” is a typical response), but in 2025 it looks to be a lot more interesting.
I tasted a lot more 24s in London for EP week last month and a few people have asked what my thoughts were, so below is a bit of an update. This comes with the caveat that most of the wines are samples that are not yet bottled (and somewhat suffer as a result) and that barrel tasting is both a very difficult skill and one that I do not claim to possess in great amounts. All that throat clearing out of the way, and with the usual caveat of all advice free or your money back:
The reds:
a. The reds are all over the place, and in some case very much for the worse. There were a few very good wines tasted but also some absolute disasters. One producer’s wines were so bad we thought they were flawed, and it’s a producer whose wines I occasionally buy.
b. In particular, I struggled with a lot of the producers who used a lot of whole cluster; underripe stems lent a very “cab franc” feel to some of the wines, including for some producers whose 22s and 23s I quite liked. There is a somewhat green feel to some of these wines already. I am particularly sensitive to green notes in pinot (much more than others), however.
c. There were some wines I really liked, so I am not writing the vintage off by any means, but it was extremely uneven – including wines made from the same producer. On average I found the Cote de Beaune was more consistent.
d. This is a vintage I would prefer not to buy blind (unlike 22 and 23, where I would be a lot more comfortable doing so – there are few “bad” wines in those vintages).
e. As with whites (discussed below), terroir mattered more than usual for this vintage.
The whites:
a. The good news is that despite the poor weather and constant rain, the quantity and quality for the whites was certainly better than the fears for 2016 or 2021 (a not dissimilar vintage).
b. The less good news is that while the wines often retain structure, they generally lack ripeness, leaving them very direct and lean. In some ways, I can understand the comparisons to 2014 which continue to have such a strong spine of acid, but the complaints about 2014 (and the reason I find it to be a somewhat overrated vintage for white outside Chablis) are written even larger in 2024 – the lack of ripe fruit means the acid will dominate the wines. This is the leanest set of Meursaults I can remember tasting (other than maybe 2021).
c. In some ways this vintage plays into the somewhat shifting stylistic preferences of consumers for leaner and more direct wines rather than more opulent ones; “GG white Burgundy”, as some have joked. However, I think sufficiently ripe fruit is still necessary and, unlike 2017 or 2020 (or even 2022), this vintage simply doesn’t have enough of that to be great.
d. That said, there will be some very good wines, particularly from those producers who have great terroir and great farming (especially organic, though those yields were often much smaller in 2024 due to the constant rain). A producer once said that terroir means “the ability to make more mistakes”, but I think in 2024 in particular it meant greater ability to withstand what nature threw at the producers. Better plots made better wines.
e. On average, I found the whites a lot more consistent than the reds. I don’t think this is a poor vintage for whites, but I don’t think it’s a great one either, though there will be some good wines made – especially from certain plots I thought performed particularly well.
f. I didn’t get any botrytis in the whites (like in 2021), but a few of the wines did have some rot on them (like some 2005 champagnes).
There were a few producers I thought did particularly well and a few I was disappointed by. My palate is fairly specific, but if anyone is interested in my views on any specific wines/producers in 24, Instagram is your best bet. And, as always, the advice is free or your money back
