We always do our utmost to arrive in Bordeaux without any pre-conceptions. We want to know enough to help guide our questioning, but not so much we’ve pre-judged a vintage or started to make assumptions. When it came to 2024, it was hard to ignore the “black cloud of negativity around it” – as Lafleur’s Omri Ram noted – a cloud that was already building in April 2024, when we were tasting the 2023s, and the rain was already proving challenging.
It was a year that, as Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse said, required stamina from the team – a technical year that needed everyone to commit whole-heartedly. Bordeaux is a maritime region, and 2024 marked a return to maritime conditions – an “oceanic vintage” as Pavie-Macquin phrased it. Almost every estate acknowledged the exhaustion felt by their teams over what ended up being an extraordinarily long growing season. It is, however, a year where there are exceptions to almost every rule. It’s a year where it’s impossible to generalise, a year where you need to look beyond the headlines, a year where there was no way to judge other than to visit, taste and talk. It was complicated – and we’ve done our best to explain it here.
The growing season
“It rained,” said Ch. Ausone’s Edouard Vauthier with a smile and a shrug. And that is undoubtedly the headline for the 2024 growing season – with record rainfall over the course of the year. From the end of the 2023 harvest, it rained and barely stopped until the end of 2024. Indeed, the spring of 2024 was the third-wettest since 1959 – with May bringing 80% more rainfall than average. The cumulative annual rainfall at Pontet-Canet was 1,318mm – versus a 30-year average of 857mm. But there’s much more to the growing season than this.
The weather was mild, with no real heat spikes, but the average temperature across the year was higher than normal (up 1°C at Haut-Bailly, for example – a figure echoed elsewhere). The year started relatively warm, encouraging early budburst. At La Conseillante, budbreak kicked off on 21st March – the earliest start to a growing season since 2012.
While there was a brief threat of frost, especially on the Right Bank, in late April (conveniently in the midst of Primeurs – making for a particularly sleepless week for many producers), it had little impact.
Flowering and fruit-set was mixed. Many estates reported that flowering was slow and uneven, with cloud and rain, while their direct neighbours would report smooth and rapid flowering under fine weather conditions. Did it really vary so much in such small distances? It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s clear that this was a challenging period for many – and something that had ramifications throughout the growing season.
At Cheval Blanc, Technical Director Pierre-Olivier Clouet explained how it had lasted an unheard-of six weeks – longer than any period they have on record. Alexandre Thienpont (Vieux Château Certan) noted it was tricky – reminding him of 1984 (a year in which the crop never ripened after this initial stumble in the season).
The result of difficult flowering is coulure and millerandage. Coulure means fewer berries per bunch of grapes, while millerandage means different-sized berries per bunch – both equating to a smaller more heterogenous crop. At Feytit-Clinet, Jeremy Chasseuil explained how much of his Merlot had just 50 berries per bunch versus the normal 100. Juliette Couderc at Evangile estimated that she lost around 20-30% of the crop at this early stage, with losses of up to 70% depending on the plot (and her older vines most impacted).
Where flowering was earlier, it seemed to be smoother – with heavy rain between 10th and 20th June that could cause problems. Of course, decisions around pruning (among other things) impact the start of the vine cycle, and those – like Ch. Margaux – who prune early tended to see fast and even flowering, with the First Growth’s vines through this critical stage before 10th June.
Several estates – including Le Pin and Cos d’Estournel – reported “filage” or bunch shift – a phenomenon where inflorescences (clusters of flowers set to become bunches of grapes) develop into tendrils, rather than fruit. Caused by the vines’ earlier vigorous vegetative growth, this further reduced yields for producers.
With high disease pressure, many producers chose to de-leaf more. This is a risk early in the season, not knowing if a heatwave lies ahead, but producers were generally rewarded for thinning the canopy, allowing better airflow and bunch exposure, as well as meaning sprays were more effective (with better penetration). Beychevelle was one of several to do more leaf-thinning in the season, deciding to de-leaf the second, western side of the vines in August.
Green harvesting was widespread, although largely for different reasons to normal. Producers cut any bunches that showed signs of mildew, while additional fruit was dropped to de-compact and allow for better airflow, as at both Palmer and Brane-Cantenac. Some producers also green-harvested to reduce the yield, concerned that the vines may not be able to ripen a full crop – as at Ch. Beauséjour.
June brought localised hail. Canon-Fronsac and Fronsac were hit severely, and on the night of 18th June a corridor of hail struck Lalande-de-Pomerol. Noëmie Durantou (of the Durantou estates, including Eglise-Clinet) described walking through the vines at Les Cruzelles the next day as “like walking among corpses”, losing around 40% of her crop at the property. At Vignobles K, one of their vineyards got hit twice, while there were reports of some properties losing everything.
With the high volume of rainfall, free-draining soils were an advantage. The teams at Guillot Clauzel, Evangile and Le Pin were all particularly grateful for their gravels, while gentle slopes that allowed for run-off were highly desirable. Clay-heavy soils were so waterlogged by this point in the season that the vines were suffering from root asphyxia – being crushed by the swollen soil and unable to breathe, visible in the pale leaves on the vines. Durantou explained how this seemed to finally start to ease in June as the weather dried, with the canopies finally shifting to a darker green.
The rainfall in June varied significantly across the region: the Médoc seemed to be drier than average, while the Right Bank and Graves were wetter (at Pavie, in Saint-Emilion, they saw twice the average rainfall, and in Pessac-Léognan it was also wetter than normal). From mid-July to the end of August, the rain finally let up everywhere, with dry weather (in line with averages). Although there were no heatwaves, with temperatures only breaking 30°C a handful of times, it was consistently warmer than normal over these months. In fact, June, July and August of 2024 were drier than the same months in 2015 at Batailley.
This warm, dry period perhaps isn’t remembered well as the season was particularly cloudy – with only April and August above the 30-year average for sunshine hours, and every other month significantly lower. From March to September, Mouton Rothschild saw 1,250 hours of sunshine versus the 10-year average of 1,500. This had an impact on photosynthesis and therefore sugar development, which was slow. At Clinet, they highlighted how their high canopy (up to an unusually high 1.75m) allowed for increased photosynthesis, aiding sugar ripeness.
Even without the sun, this period was key: the water stress that was needed for the fruit to start ripening finally arrived. As the Angélus team noted, it’s long been said that “août fait le moût” (August makes the must) – but it was particularly true this year. Véraison (colour change of the grapes) kicked in, remarkably late, and even by the end of August some Cabernet was still green (the same time that some red grapes were being harvested in 2022).
Any heterogeneity was, at this stage, particularly obvious. Some producers – such as Tertre Roteboeuf – noted how the fruit had evened out by this stage. David Suire at Laroque was one of many who emphasised how heterogenous the crop still was at this stage – and would be at harvest. Christian Moueix recalled a similar situation in 1987, and trying to use surgical scissors to snip out individual berries at Pétrus – an impractical method even for the most boutique estate.
At the end of August, the rain arrived again. For the team at Lynch-Bages, the first rains were a godsend – noting how their vines’ ripening had stalled (accentuated by drier June weather, perhaps), but maturation was then “unleashed” by the rain. The dry July and August had been key for phenolic ripeness, but technical – or sugar – ripeness was what most producers needed to wait for. Soon the major threat was botrytis. Some de-leafed further, and those with better-ventilated sites (such as Belle-Brise) seemed to escape the significant pressure felt elsewhere.
The first whites started coming in from the very end of August through to mid-September. Rain fell largely between 1st and 10th September, then again after the 21st through to the end of the month.
Finding windows to pick was challenging – finding the days between rain when the fruit was ripe. Although these harvesting periods were short, it was a slow harvest, with extensive sorting required in the vineyard, and several estates reported using larger teams. At Evangile, they managed to bring the Rieussec team up from Sauternes to help in Pomerol. Several properties explained how the office team was rolled out to help sort the grapes in an all-hands-on-deck effort.
The majority of properties started picking Merlot from around 20th September, with the last of the Cabernet Sauvignon in by 10th October. The weather was dry for the first part of October, before rain arrived again around 12th of the month. Some producers chose to wait as long as they could to harvest, sacrificing significant portions of their crop to botrytis. At Clos de Sarpe, Maylis Marcenat estimates she lost around 20% of her fruit to rot – but it was essential so that the majority could reach ripeness. Others chose to bring the fruit in earlier and sort out anything unripe. At some estates, producers abandoned parcels entirely – finding their was too much rot for it to be even worth picking, as with a handful of plots at Haut-Brion and a whole three hectares at L’Hetre.
Either way, sorting was key – and few producers actually vinified the yield that was on their vines. At Les Carmes Haut-Brion, for example, they had 45hl/ha potential crop on the vines, but made just 24hl/ha after extensive selection. While optical sorters have become common place, alongside sorting by hand (which remains the preference at many estates), this year saw a notable rise in those referencing the use of density baths or densimetric sorting. Using a sugar solution, this method can filter out any berries that don’t meet a set ripeness level (judged by their weight). Yields varied wildly between producers and even between vineyard parcels. At Ch. Margaux, Aurélien Valance explained how some of their clay plots yielded just 10hl/ha, while their best gravel plots produced 45hl/ha.
Although some producers managed to produce a relatively normal yield, most were down by around 20-30% – due to the combined effects of coulure, millerandage, mildew and botrytis.
What producers did to handle the vintage
With the mild, wet weather, it was – as Omri Ram at Lafleur put it – “a paradise” for downy mildew, and spraying started early. At Lafleur, they had to do their first treatment in March, for the first time ever. Disease pressure continued throughout the season and managing this was key.
The ability to manage this pressure – having the money, staff, know-how and equipment – determined estates’ success. At Ch. Montrose, their team treated the vines a relatively moderate 20 times, but four of those treatments were between midnight and 3am, and 10 on a Sunday.
Working organically or biodynamically, of course, made things even harder – having more limited resources to shield the vines, and needing to spray after every bout of rain. The volume of copper (the backbone of organic viticulture) used in vineyards this year was particularly high – often around 6kg. (Technically organic viticulture permits 4kg per year, although this is an average taken across seven years – and should even out in due course.) At Palmer (biodynamically certified), they treated the vines 33 times – and they were one of several estates that resorted to backpack sprayers, working by hand, when it was simply too wet to get tractors into the vines.
If properties weren’t certified, it was rare for them to stick to organic principles – and some even sacrificed certification, such was the pressure this year. At Domaine de Chevalier, Calon Ségur and Le Crock, they all resorted to conventional treatments to protect their crop.
It’s easy to judge producers from afar on such matters, feeling that these principles should override economics. But it’s just not that clean-cut: with such high volumes of a heavy metal going into the soil, some would argue that fewer conventional treatments are better for the environment – especially when you take into account tractor fuel, not to mention the health and wellbeing of the team working the vines. Ignoring the environmental sustainability, at the end of the day, wine producers are farmers, and what kind of farmer would choose to watch their crop rot?
Despite the challenge, some estates stuck with it: for the Chanel stable (Rauzan-Ségla, Canon and Berliquet), 2024 marks their first organically certified year, and they even managed to produce 43-44hl/ha on the Right Bank (a triumph against nature this year). Similarly, Pontet-Canet brought in a full crop, even working biodynamically. The team at Smith Haut Lafitte highlighted how they used horsetail, buckthorn and oak bark sprays alongside copper to help manage mildew pressure.
Beyond the extensive efforts to manage disease pressure, de-leafing and green harvesting (mentioned above), several estates also kept their cover crop longer. The idea was that it would provide competition for the plentiful water, and also make it easier for tractors to get into the vineyard (versus pure mud), as at Figeac and Léoville Las Cases.
Recent vintages have seen a rise in the use of cool rooms, chilling down fruit prior to fermentation, which is especially useful when fruit is being harvested in warm conditions. This year, that was less of a concern, however Rauzan-Ségla used a cool store for the first time, something they felt allowed them to manage smaller plot-by-plot vinifications more easily.
This was a year where work in the winery was significant and approaches varied. Manipulation – to some extent – was required, for nature simply wasn’t that giving this year. But saignée, reverse osmosis and chaptalisation should not be considered dirty words – and we tasted some brilliant wines made with some or all of these methods (some of our favourites of the vintage, in fact).
With the high rainfall, saignée – the bleeding off of juice – was widespread, especially for Merlot, to concentrate the must. After the rain, grapes will absorb the water; after a few days, the swelling of the berries reduces, but in a year like 2024, there often wasn’t time to wait for this to happen. As such, saignée was a common way to remove that excess water (at Cheval Blanc and Montrose, for example). An alternative option was reverse osmosis (as at Ausone and Tertre Roteboeuf), essentially a filtering method that increases the concentration of the must (and has historically been used, but often not discussed). Chaptalisation – as in 2021 – was very much the norm, especially for the later-ripening Cabernet.
The naturally high acidity and low pH made for smooth and rapid ferments, and while in recent warmer years, there had been much talk of lower temperatures, few felt the need to adjust it this year. Some producers, however – such as Pichon Baron and Léoville Poyferré – did favour lower fermentation temperatures.
When it came to extraction, some pointed to great phenolic ripeness and worked the must longer and/or harder to extract this from the grapes (as at Margaux or Troplong Mondot). Others leant into a lighter style, opting for shorter and/or gentler macerations, favouring fruit expression (at Lafite Rothschild, for example). Some said the seeds were beautifully ripe (L’If, Laroque), others that they were green and demanded a light touch (Evangile, Beauséjour).
A similar range of approaches was found for élevage, with some preferring less new oak (Beauséjour, Haut-Bailly) or shorter time in barrel (Cheval Blanc, Feytit-Clinet), and others feeling the wine can handle the “normal” treatment.
The blends vary, some having more Cabernet (Carmes Haut-Brion, Lafite, Palmer) as Merlot was more susceptible to coulure and mildew, but some estates lost more of the later-ripening Cabernet to botrytis, or found it simply didn’t ripen fully (so there’s more Merlot at Canon and Pontet-Canet, for example). The Barton family found it was very site-specific: at Langoa Barton, their Merlot is on the slopes and the water ran off, meaning it fared well; but at Léoville it fared less well, with the Cabernet on gravel thriving.
The style of the wines
This year, more than any other, there are no rules. It is impossible to make generalisations – and perhaps therefore, it is unsurprising that the vintage produced such a wide range of wines, in both style and quality.
The first tasting of our trip, at Cheval Blanc, provided a wine we hadn’t expected – a serious, almost austere Cheval that will need time to be approachable. It couldn’t have been much further from the more gentle, fruit-forward style I’d expected. There are some elegant, fine-boned expressions of 2024, but there are also wines with more “matière”, wines that are broader and richer – and there are examples of each which are great successes. There are, however, many examples of wines that are not great successes. Tasting was key – for there is almost no predictability as to those who fared better than their neighbours.
Generally speaking, the wines offer lower alcohol (most between 12.5-13%), high acidity and lighter body. The best have gorgeous perfume and finesse, with florals particularly dominant in the aromatics across the region. The fruit is generally on the red, rather than black, side of the spectrum, but beneath this crunchy profile, the best wines offer very fine tannins – displaying true phenolic ripeness. To put a number against this, the IPT (a figure for the total polyphenol index which has been widely used in recent vintages) for 2024 Ch. Margaux is 64: for reference, that’s more than any vintage of the 1980s and ’90s, and is just shy of 2010 which had an IPT of 65.
The Right Bank seemed to be more homogenous than the Left; a virtue perhaps of generally smaller properties that are easier to manage in the face of such conditions. As Guillaume Thienpont said of Guillot Clauzel (an estate he has been managing since 2018), it’s “more human-sized”.
We’ll be delivering our recommendations, along with those of the critics, as ever. We can’t shy away from the fact that the vintage was tricky – and there are some thin, hollow or astringent wines, as well as those that were over-extracted in a bid to become something they’re not. Selection is essential, and there is often a significant step up between second wines and the Grand Vin this year. At some estates, lower level wines weren’t even produced (there’s no Petit Ducru at Ducru-Beaucaillou, for example). Certain properties have produced wines that – by force of the year’s conditions – are atypical (Le Dôme, for example, made their lowest-alcohol wine ever).
Several properties reference the vintage as a return to the old-school Claret style of the 1980s. That period offered more challenging vintages, less consistent quality, the struggle for ripeness very much prevalent – and yes, higher acidity and lower alcohol. But the way the vines are farmed and the wines are made has changed totally since then. The same growing season would have been a disaster 40 years ago – but it’s not today. At Brane-Cantenac, the team was pouring their 1985 – a wine that has remarkably similar analytics to the 2024. Of course, 2024 is not another 1985 – but there is a classicism to the best wines that will appeal to traditional Claret drinkers.
As to which year 2024 is most like… it is, of course, unique: 2017 and 2021 were natural and frequent bedfellows. Producers also pointed to the likes of 1988, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2014. A year that resonated for us for the best wines was 2001 – mentioned by Frédéric Castéja at Batailley and Aurélien Valance at Margaux.
At their best, the 2024 reds are expressive and elegant, perfumed and persistent – they are wines that really will deliver great pleasure. Some will be approachable early and drink through to the medium term, but there are also a handful that will be surprisingly long-lived. These may not be blockbusters – but they’re all the better for it.
A note on the whites
We’ll be diving more into each commune in our breakdown next week, but it’s worth highlighting that there are some brilliant whites this year. The fruit for these was largely harvested before the worst of the September rain, avoiding additional disease pressure. The cooler conditions of the year preserved freshness and the resulting wines lean toward green rather than tropical fruit, with the best often showing a pleasing salinity and very good concentration, with beautifully balanced acidity. While we’re not quite ready to declare the whites uniformly outstanding, they are much more consistent than the reds, and some estates have produced beautiful wines – those such as Domaine de Chevalier Blanc may just be the property’s best to date.
Bordeaux 2024: the vintage in brief
An undeniably heterogenous vintage – but with some good wines
The growing season was long, with record levels of rainfall, but a warm, dry July and August were key
Disease pressure was high and, combined with coulure/millerandage, yields are therefore mostly low – down 20-30% at most estates
Sorting was key, with more people than ever before using density baths, sometimes alongside optical and hand sorting
Chaptalisation was routine, in particular for the Cabernet. Saignée and reverse osmosis were widely used
It’s almost impossible to generalise about the year or the wines and selection is key, with some hollow, thin or astringent wines produced
Generally speaking, the wines are in an "old-school" style – with low (12.5-13%) alcohol and vibrant acidity, and the best offering bright fruit and vibrant aromatics
Most will drink over the short and medium term, with some destined for a longer-ageing
The Right Bank is generally stronger than the Left
There are also some superlative white wines
We’ll be publishing more about the 2024 vintage: keep an eye out for more
You can now explore the wines that have already been released and place pre-orders for those that haven’t
