2024 Bordeaux Wine Guide, The Official Report
With the 2024 Bordeaux, one size does not fit all this year. Producers faced issues such as excessive, torrential rains, mildew, botrytis, under-ripeness, hail, coulure, millerandage, and insufficient sunshine. In fact, several vineyards were affected by more than one of those problems. The result was a change in the blends, especially in the Left Bank, as it was the early ripening merlot that suffered the most.
Yet, despite all these challenging conditions with the 2024 Bordeaux vintage, producers possessing the right terroir, and more importantly, the financial capability, and willingness to respond promptly to mildew pressure, along with the inclination to make draconian selections in the vineyards and cellars were able to create charming, early-drinking, modern-classically styled wines with 2024 Bordeaux. The 2024 Bordeaux vintage is not a Right Bank, or Left Bank year. You have good wines for the vintage, as well as unsuccessful wines from both banks.
2024 St. Estephe Wine Guide, Tasting Notes, Scores for all Top Wines
2024 Left Bank Appellation Wine Guides…
2024 St. Estephe – 2024 Pauillac – 2024 Saint Julien – 2024 Margaux – 2024 Pessac Leognan, Graves – 2024 Haut Medoc, Medoc, Listrac, Moulis – 2024 Dry White Bordeaux – 2024 Sauternes and Dry Whites from Sauternes Producers
2024 Right Bank Appellation Wine Guides…
2024 St. Emilion Pt 1, Wines A-L – 2024 St. Emilion Pt 2 Wines M-Z – 2024 Pomerol, Lalande de Pomerol – 2024 Cotes de Bordeaux, St. Emilion Satellite Appellations – 2024 Bordeaux Superieur and AOC Bordeaux
Below, we will outline the conditions for the growing season and harvest for 2024 Bordeaux vintage, which are essential for understanding the vintage. But, more importantly, it is the wines that matter, so let’s begin this the wines from 2024.
What do 2024 Bordeaux wines taste like?
At their best, 2024 Bordeaux represent a modern interpretation of classic Bordeaux vintages from previous years. The wines are aromatic, lower in alcohol by one degree or more, with pH, making impressions of acidity, i.e., freshness, more pronounced. The wines lean towards the bright, red fruit style spectrum, featuring cherries, red currants, strawberries, raspberries, and occasionally cranberries. Most 2024 Bordeaux wines are expected to offer early drinkability. But, it is important to keep in mind, 2024 Bordeaux is a drinkers vintage. The wines can age to some degree, 15-25 years or so, but most will be better in their fruit-forward youth.
While the top 2024 Bordeaux wines can be charming, the lack of a mid-palate, and moderate levels of concentration are noticeable. Producers willing to gamble, waiting for the best possible levels of maturity produced some the best wines of the vintage. Frederic Faye Chateau Figeac “Patience, patience, and more patience while waiting for the best maturity we could find. From there, there was severe selection in the vineyards and again in the cellars. The end result is that we produced less than half of our normal crop, helping us to create the best wine possible in this vintage.”
The estates exercising a light touch in their cellars, combined with careful sorting in the vineyards and cellars, produced nice, early-drinking charmers. Estates that pushed too hard, attempting to create wines that the vintage did not support, ended up with harsh, drying wines that will age poorly. The effects of barrel aging will be the finial determination in the wines evolutions. I expect many of the wines to gently fill out, gaining some more roundness once they are in bottle. But we will see, what we see, when we see it. Everybody loves vintage comparisons. As a matter of style, not weather conditions, perhaps 2024 Bordeaux in the Left Bank reminds me of 2002, while the Right Bank is similar to 2004.
2024 Bordeaux En Primeur and The Future of Futures… An Open Letter to Bordeaux
Like many things in life, it all comes down to price, which should be influenced by the actual supply and demand in the market. Not the perceived, and hoped for demand, but, a real-world view of the actual marketplace, determined by the true customer, the end-user.
An honest look at the oversupply of Bordeaux from dramatically better vintages still on offer, versus the extremely light demand for 2024 Bordeaux should help set the price. Yes, 2024 was very expensive to produce, and production for several estates was down. However, that on its own is not enough to ignite the marketplace.
The USA, with its tariff issues, and the loss in the exchange rate, world-wide fears of worsening economic conditions coupled with a general malaise for buying futures is weighing heavily on consumers’ minds. Wine buyers are fully-aware of the lack of value for numerous wines purchased as futures for several years now. While a handful of wines have increased in value, most have remained at the same level, while others have declined in value. So 2024 Bordeaux wines must be priced accordingly if they want to sell through.
Prices for early-drinking vintages need to inspire wine buyers to purchase two years in advance. And 2024 Bordeaux is an early-drinking vintage. While I recognize that some estates have more room than others to reduce prices, it is clear that consumers are seeking average drops of at least 25% from the previous vintage, 2023, in order to buy up front. Else, they are willing to wait until the wines are available for immediate delivery.
There is no wine region in the world offering better quality wines for the money than Bordeaux. Especially when you consider the large quantities available, making the wines easy to find and purchase. The issue is, why buy two years in advance when the wine will probably be available at the same price, or even less on release than the original futures price? Until that question is asked and answered in a manner satisfying end users, purchasing En Primeur will continue to die a slow and painful death.
Every year, there is a new mantra in Bordeaux, and 2024 Bordeaux is no exception. This year, it is DBY, “Drink Bordeaux Young!”. I agree with that sentiment whole heartedly. But, for that to happen, the wines need to be priced to sell, to drink, and to start bringing in the next generation of consumers.
2024 Bordeaux Climatic Conditions, Vintage, and Harvest Report…
Challenging is characterized as demanding, testing your abilities. Clearly, that defines the 2024 Bordeaux growing season in a nutshell, as growers faced nearly every issue imaginable.
2024 Bordeaux began with a wet start and continued in that direction due to the highest amount of precipitation since the 2000 vintage. To illustrate this point, from October 2023 until March 2024, the vineyards were drenched with 35 inches, nearly 900 mm, of continuous rain. This amount of rain was nearly 70% above the average of the previous 10 years, resulting in extreme difficulties for growers during the season, as rains often fell at difficult times during the growth cycle. This often resulted in low yields at some properties, with a few estates reduced to as low as 11 hectoliters per hectare.
Attacks of mildew were rampant. Growers with the financial means to combat the mildew as it arose were constantly on alert.
Budbreak occurred early, starting in late March/early April. At that point, 2024 Bordeaux looked good as the vintage was precipitous due to being 10 days early. However, all the excess moisture and precipitation led to outbreaks of downy mildew. By early spring, vintners who could afford it reported spraying 15 to 30 times, with some estates spraying close to 40 times. To illustrate this point, vineyard workers needed to remain ready, willing, and able to work Saturdays and Sundays. The relentless assaults of mildew persisted until the rains let up, and conditions improved somewhat, which took place by the summer. Omri Ram Chateau Lafleur “2024 will be remembered as a vintage of workers, not a leisure vintage. We worked seven days a week, without breaks to produce our wine.”
Flowering, as anticipated, was late, and uneven. Cooler temperatures slowed vine growth, and the season was no longer expected to be early. At that point, the ongoing moisture led to millerandage (uneven sizes and maturities in grape bunches) and coulure (when flowers fail to develop into fruit). April was a bit of a roller-coaster, with the month starting out wet, and cool. Mid April was sunny, and warm until cooler weather returned, along with morning frosts April 19 – April 23. May proved to be difficult with drenching rains, chilly temperatures and a lack of sun further delaying the growth cycle. If that wasn’t enough, Lalande de Pomerol and Fronsac were battered by hailstorms in May and June.
Growers were rewarded with dry, pleasant conditions once summer arrived in late July and August, which sat the start of veraison, (Change of color in the grapes). Bruno Borie Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou “The success of the vintage was clearly due to the warm and dry August.” Other estates agree with Borie. Francois-Xavier Maroteaux Chateau Branaire Ducru “The dry summer, beginning in mid-July and continuing through August, saved as well as made the vintage.” That, coupled with low yields caused by nature as well as our team’s extensive work in the vineyard, is what made the difference.” The days were moderately warm, and the nights cold, allowing acidities to develop. What was once predicted to be an early vintage transformed into a later harvest. And you know what they say, “Late Ain’t Great.”
As August came to a close, 2024 Bordeaux faced more rain in September, with rainfall averaging between 100 mm to 140 mm, depending on the appellation. The saving graces at that time proved to be the arrival of warm, sunny afternoons and winds that helped reduce the development of vineyard diseases. However, growers needed to remain vigilant against attacks of botrytis. To produce the best wine possible, vintners had to take risks.
Vignerons needed to wait for optimal ripeness. Yet, the threat of more rain, and deteriorating conditions loomed large. Julien Barthe Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot “Controlling outbreaks of mildew was one of the keys to our vintage this year. Additionally, waiting as long as possible for ripeness in the Merlot was another key factor this year. In fact, we did not finish picking Merlot until October 3, setting a record for the latest date in the estate’s history to finish harvesting Merlot.”
Choosing the right date to harvest was not the only decision vintners needed to make. They were also forced to consider their effective yields, which meant deciding how much they were willing to sort and declassify. Of course, the estates with the willingness to ruthlessly select produced the best wines of the vintage. Nicolas Audebert Chateau Canon “2024 was our first vintage certified as organic. And, even with that in mind, in this difficult year, we produced 44 hectoliters per hectare. This means that with 2024, you are tasting the true vineyard of Chateau Canon, as we are using the majority of the production.”
2024 Bordeaux… Harvesting
Harvesting the 2024 white Bordeaux grapes started with Sauvignon Blanc, beginning quite early in late August. On average, Semillon was picked 1 to 2 weeks later. For the red wine grapes, growers began picking select Merlot in mid-September, between September 12-September 18, give or take a day or two. This often took place under non-optimal conditions of rainy weather before the Merlot was fully developed. Harvesting of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varied widely. Some properties began picking in late September, while other vineyards did not start harvesting until after October 5.
Sorting not only took place in the vineyards; sorting before vinification was imperative. Marielle Cazaux Chateau La Conseillante “Draconian selection in the sorting for 2024 is what made this vintage work. We removed over 20% of the harvest, which brought us to 22 hectoliters per hectare.” To help with this Herculean task, estates relied on optical sorting, density baths, vibrating tables, and, for the first time, AI.
Pierre Olivier Clouet Chateau Cheval Blanc “The density bath during sorting was one of the keys to the vintage. It enabled us to perform incredibly strict selections removing all the botrytis-infected berries. Each bath was unique in its sorting ability, which reduced yields but helped us find the best fruits.” In fact, density baths were used extensively in both banks this year. Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy Chateau Mouton Rothschild “Using the densimetric bath for sorting, which is done by placing grapes into a mixture of sugar and water, resulting in unwanted grapes floating to the surface, which are discarded, while retaining the remaining berries made a difference you can taste and feel in the wines.”
Numerous estates reported needing to chaptalize some or all of their harvest for the Cabernets, and some for their Merlot, increasing the sugar levels to between 0.5 and 1%. To enhance concentration and color, several properties bled the tanks (saignee), and a few relied on reverse osmosis.
A light touch during the extraction process, with some estates reporting fewer pump-overs, (the new word of the week in Bordeaux is infusions) and extended periods of maceration at lower temperatures, was also observed. Philippe Basculles Chateau Margaux “Fermentations took place at slightly higher temperatures than normal, starting at 20°C and finishing between 28°C and 30°C, which helped achieve more body and roundness.”
To help with the concentration, and color, you often find more press wine added to the blends this year as well. While the same amount of new French oak is being used for the elevage at most estates, it is possible that the time in barrel will be reduced at several properties. Of course, those decisions will be determined as the wines continue their sojourn in the barrel. With 2024 Bordeaux, you also see more estates embracing foudres, and amphora for aging. Olivier Berrouet Petrus “Fine-tuning in the cellars allowed us to adapt to the needs of the vintage, such as shorter macerations and reduced aeration during vinifications.”
Yields varied widely from appellation to appellation, as expected; however, diverse variances in yields also occurred from vineyard to vineyard within appellations. Some estates reported high yields close to or above 50 hectoliters per hectare at the upper end, while others dropped to roughly 11 hectoliters per hectare. This diversity in yields was observed in organic and biodynamic vineyards as well, with some harvests coming in close to 30 hectoliters per hectare, while others reached 20, and some only 11. Thomas Duroux Chateau Palmer “The success of the vintage stemmed from achieving balance in the wines and avoiding overproduction.”
While 2024 Bordeaux was challenging for producing red wines, it proved to be a remarkable year for white Bordeaux wine. The 2024 White Bordeaux wines offer soaring aromatics, freshness, purity, and vibrancy. Additionally, you find a lot more chateaux producing white wines with unique, and fun blends. I am a big fan of these non-traditional whites. Sweet white Bordeaux from Sauternes and Barsac also yielded very strong wines with ample botrytis, and acidities. Something else readers should pay attention to is the increase in quality of the dry white Bordeaux wines coming from vineyards in Sauternes these days, Fans of those wines should be on the lookout for the wines made from 100% Semillon, which are outstanding!
Lastly, perhaps the most interesting and least talked-about point is that only a few decades ago, a vintage like 2024 Bordeaux would have been considered a complete disaster. Today, with significantly improved vineyard knowledge, precise picking dates, selection, and modern cellars capable of vinifying on a parcel-by-parcel basis, there are numerous charming, early-drinking wines that, if priced correctly, deserve a place in restaurants and in the cellars of consumers seeking early-drinking, fresher options.
