Bordeaux 2024 Vintage Report

Bordeaux 2024 Vintage Report:
Terroir, technique, timing…and price

The mood was more sombre this year during the en primeur week than in many previous years. While many properties were satisfied with the quality produced against the backdrop of a challenging growing season, the world has become more complicated. Tariffs, wars, a declining number of drinkers, a wealth of back vintage stock, global uncertainty, and a market for Bordeaux that has fallen back over the past few years, frame the context of this campaign.

While it is easy to dwell on the challenges in the market at the moment, the Bordeaux primeur campaign is always the headline act on the fine wine stage. If successful, the releases over the coming weeks could act as an important reset button on the global fine wine market and provide a real incentive to buy. 

There were some excellent wines made in the 2024 vintage – almost without exception these hail from the most famous addresses in the region - but equally, there are many wines that are disappointing and show the struggles of the growing season. Yet, as is so often the case, it is those wines that have been formed through challenge, adversity, and determination that will create the most interest and excitement on the table.

 

The weather and vintage conditions:

This was not a vintage where it was almost ‘easy’ to make a good wine – tasting hundreds of wines in the past week shows how heterogenous the quality is this year. It is impossible to generalise about the left bank or right bank, or even between communes. It was a vintage of frequent challenges, perhaps some compromise, and a bit of risk taking.

The growing season always begins with the preceding winter, and the winter months of 2023 and 2024 were mild and wet with almost a full year’s worth of rain falling between 1st October and the 1st March. The budding was early and looked promising for a large crop.

Spring was cool and wet, and with it an unprecedented threat of mildew, with treatment in the vineyard starting as early as the 20th April. Flowering was largely slow and uneven and varied from estate to estate, lasting from May 22nd until June 13th - many properties reported difficulties with Merlot. The ongoing wet conditions meant treatment in the vineyard was a challenge on certain terroirs.

With July came the sun. Both July and August were warm, sunny months that did much to brighten the mood among winemakers with some producers eager to point out the onset of hydric stress – important in concentrating and ripening the berries. Despite this, veraison was around 10 days later than 2022 or 2023. While 2024 certainly had its fair share of rain, temperatures were largely in line with the 10-year average and rainfall was lower than average in these two months.

White grapes took advantage of these bright summer months and harvest began around the 7th September under excellent conditions. For reds, there was still some way to go before the finish line.

The sunny summer months turned to unsettled and stormy weather from the 20th September with a significant amount of rain falling in the final week of September. Harvest took place under changeable conditions with many producers waiting, and taking the risk to sort through any issues in the crop in favour of better physiological ripeness with the final Cabernet grapes in by the 16th October.

 

Terroir, technique, and timing:

It was a year that privileged the best vineyard sites. It was most certainly a vintage where the ability of the terroir, or specific site, to manage the excess of water was a key factor. Vineyards with free draining gravel, on the Terrace 3 and 4 soils of the left bank, for example, showed their worth as well as their ability to warm quickly in the sun.

This was also a growing season which demanded the full array of technical tools in the vineyard manager and winemaker’s arsenal. The mildew pressure was severe, particularly during the early part of the season, although many estates have become accustomed to this pressure in recent vintages such as 2023, 2021, and 2018. Many growers took to de-leafing first one side, and then the other side of the canopy in the latter part of the season to expose the bunches to the sunlight and limit the impact of botrytis.

A word that every winemaker mentioned this year was selection.  It was Noemie Durantou of Château l’Eglise Clinet who put it simply, "everything was in the sorting". She spoke about her strict instructions to her harvesting team to inspect each bunch of grapes, cutting away anything less than perfect. In the winery many different properties used a myriad of sorting machines from optical sorters to state-of-the-art densimetric sorting machines. Many properties made the difficult choice to take out between 20-30% of their production.

In the winery, some estates chose to build the intensity of the Merlot through the use of saignée while for the Cabernet, chapitalisation of around 0.5% was quite normal. More than ever, extraction of tannins and aromatics was a careful process with infusion, submerged cap, and the use of ‘air-pulse’ technology.

The quality of the wine produced this year demonstrates that Bordeaux is at the vanguard of winemaking technology and techniques both in the vineyard and cellar. It is clear the level of wine made in a year like 2024 was simply not possible even ten years ago.

Throughout the year, each property and each vineyard was faced with a myriad of important decisions. The question of how and when to react was formative in the final wine. The timing of rains during the flowering process varied hugely from estate to estate. For some, coulure and millerandage had a profound impact on yields, while for others flowering was relatively successful, some (such as at Château Margaux) enjoyed perfect conditions for the flowering of their Cabernet Sauvignon. Vineyard managers needed to work harder than ever, with the threat of mildew continuing regardless of the time of day, the weekend, or public holidays.

The 2024 vintage continues to drive a wedge between the haves and the have-nots; money truly talked this vintage. Indeed, vineyards at the lower end of the spectrum are being uprooted – vineyard area in production declined from 103.2K hectares in 2023 down to 94.7K hectares in 2024. Treatments in the vineyard started before the en primeur week in 2024 and were necessary through much of the growing season. The reality that this vintage was one of the most expensive vintages for many producers to make yet one that must be priced less expensively than any other vintage in the market, is a difficult pill to swallow for every château.

 

The style of the wines:

From a stylistic point of view, while there is a lot of variation between properties, there are some broad characteristics of this vintage: accessibility, aromatics and athleticism. With many wine buyers and drinkers demanding wines with slightly lower alcohol, with freshness, and with more immediate appeal it is fair to say that Mother Nature and the Bordelais winemakers have conspired to deliver exactly this. The top wines from this vintage are chiselled, vibrant and intense wines with an athletic frame that will give pleasure for decades to come. It is unlikely that critics will be lavishing the magic 100-point score on any wines this year, but stylistically speaking, this is not important.

The 2024 vintage is not a year for second wines. With a very strict selection to produce only the best Grand Vin, the second wines almost universally are often simple wines that will make for enjoyable drinking at a young age but should only be bought when in bottle.

The question of comparisons with older vintages is always a difficult one. Many growers struggled to draw immediate comparisons but feel the quality is slightly above the 2017 and 2021 vintages. Alexandre Thienpoint of Vieux Château Certan drew a comparison to the aromatics of the 1985 wines, and Henri Lurton of Brane Cantenac offered a sip of their 1985 on the way out of the tasting room. If the 2024 vintage turns out to be similar to the 1985 vintage with a little more stuffing, then there could be many exciting bottles to open in the future.

 

Final thoughts:

This campaign should see some sharply priced releases from top estates. Many directors of Classed Growth properties have openly expressed their intention to make the offer enticing and as one top estate has put it "unrefusable".

We will be offering a trimmed down range of wines from the best estates where we believe quality and price are aligned. We will not be offering any second wines outside of the First Growth estates, nor many more modestly priced wines, as better value and quality is to be found in physical, bottled stock.

We expect the wines to be released in quick succession over the coming month, with a First Growth property each week. If you have a question about a specific wine or would like more information on the vintage, please do not hesitate to get in touch.