The year 2024 has not been easy for Burgundy winegrowers. Spring frost, episodes of hail and unusual rainfall will have repercussions on the quantity and quality of the harvest, with very heterogeneous situations. Details.
After 2022 and 2023 vintages that were as generous as they were tasty, Burgundian winegrowers have restocked and regained morale. Fortunately, because the 2024 harvest will bring its share of complications. The harvest, which is due to start in mid-September almost everywhere in the region, will be marked by the violent weather events of the year.
After some scattered frost damage in the spring, it was hail that wreaked havoc this season. Particularly in Chablis, where half of the vineyard was affected on May 1st. In other sectors, the damage is more localized. Thus, some villages in the north of Mâconnais suffered hailstones.
A Burgundian harvest affected by mildew
But the great drama of the year remains mildew. This parasite severely attacked the Burgundy vines this year, thanks to exceptional rainfall. The situations are very disparate. Some plots are unscathed, because they are located in less sensitive areas, or because the winegrowers have been particularly successful in protecting them. But in places, the grapes were ravaged. A common situation in Côte d’Or as well as in Chablis, which is thus suffering its second calamity of the year.
Impossible to assess the harvest before the first blows of the pruning shears. But we can already say that it will be quantitatively lower than the average. On the quality side, it is also difficult to say, as the situation will be so heterogeneous. The only answer: the style will probably lean more towards finesse than the solar power of many recent vintages. And like every time a vintage presents challenges, talented and experienced winegrowers will succeed. We will find very beautiful vintages in the 2024 vintage, but less easily than in 2020, 2022 or 2023.
