Here is a quick recap of theis "exceptional" vintage.

-A lot of cumulative rainfall in the 2023/2024 winter that was so intense it did not permit us to finish planting our cover crops. The ones we did plant had to get ripped out as they had rotted in the soil. 

- We had a spring frost in mid-April that destroyed between 1/4 to 1/4rd of the buds depending on the parcels.

-Over 300mm of rain in May and June which led to a simultaneous coulure and agressive attack of mildew on the buds. Even though coulure seemed to be responsable for the worst of the damage, mildew continued destroying buds all the way to veraison in mid-August. In total we did 14 treatments, four of which were on foot because the tractors couldn't get into the vines. 

-We had a two week break with no rain in the summer but it started up again in late August and continued through September. This led to grey rot during harvest, forcing us to leave many bunches on the floor during harvest. It also forced us to finish our harvest as quickly as possible in order to lose the minimum amount of grapes, which were already on the verge of dilution. It is the first time in our history that we did a double pass selection of the grapes, first in the vines and again in the cellar. 

In the end we brought in about 1/4 of a crop partially compensated by purchased fruit since our cellar was less than half full. The wines are extremely light (from 10 to 12.5%) but still precise and free of flaws. The only satisfaction of this vintage was the vinifications, which went very smoothly thanks to very high acidities and low alcoholic potential. It was also a first for us: the lowest levels of volatile acidity in the history of the estate!

Winter 2024 was not a very cold one and unfortunately without snow. This lead to the budding of the vines started earlier than in previous years. Some rain in Spring helped face the early summer months.

We were very careful during the flowering in June, remembering how devastating it was in 2023 and fearing to find any spore of mildew. But
the weather helped us in this sense, with a dry June and July followed by rains in August that led our plants to reach a good ripening.
 
The harvest started on September 14th with the red grapes: a week earlier than in previous years. We started from the lowest vines, continuing in elevation. It was the hottest harvest we've ever had, reaching up to 30 Celsius and leading to the driest harvest we have seen in all my years on Etna. The ripening was very similar between one vineyard to another:
we harvested the grapes in Nave, our highest vineyard on October 4th, 15 days earlier than usual, finishing the harvest in just 20 days.
 
We can be satisfied with the production this year, with intense, deep reds. By incorporating a new vineyard planted in 2021, the Versante Nord Bianco will have a lower percentage of Minnella and more Carricante. We think that this will help bring more acidity to the wine. 
 
In 2024, we were able to produce the totality of our cuvées, unlike in 2023 where we only producerd Versante Nord Rosso and the  two whites .

Here is what we can say about the 2024 vintage:

It was a bit of a complicated year...

Frost was extremely localized but it still did its damage on a part of the Pain Perdu parcels, impacting our yields by about 20%.

It was a very cool summer, meaning we didn't have much respite from constant mildew pressure. 

Our September -the critical month before harvest- was also quite rainy, forcing us to manually strip off leaves from both sides on the vines to help accelerate the grapes' extremely slow maturation. 

Harvest itself was quite nice, it was the inauguration of our "new" very old vertical press for the whites and, for the first time, the reds as well. 

Yields are lower than 2023 but the juices are fresh with lower alcohol than recent vintages. 

Here are some photos: 

“2022 leaves us with the impression that we've seen what the future holds in terms of climate change: spring frost, lack of rain, summer heat.”

I wrote this for the 2022 harvest report. I was so wrong. So either I’m a total fool or the climate is changing and unpredictable. Most likely both.

2024 was super rainy and it still is as I’m writing this on December 11th. It’s been raining for pretty much a year here. So we had to adapt our work in the vineyard, no plowing, just cutting the grass, a lot of spraying against mildew. But at the end we had a reasonably good harvest. And we realize how lucky we were this year compared to a lot of other regions of France.

We hired a large team of young and motivated Europeans so the harvest was fast, finished in 3 weeks which is very comfortable compared to some vintages where it seems to last forever.

Yields and maturity were almost normal. The juices are fermenting very slowly in our brand new cellar but we stay patient. You can expect bright acidity and the whole range to be produced this vintage.

2024 was marked by a record amount of rainfall in France and Chinon was not spared. After avoiding any issues with frost, we were under intense mildew pressure from early May through mid-August. We spent all Spring and Summer fighting against this illness, which gnawed at the leaves and many grapes in certain parcels. 

We were hoping for an Indian summer that never came: September was just as rainy and forced us to push back our harvest start date to October. We then hoped that this extra time would give the grapes more time to concentrate in sugars but this remained fairly limited. 

Despite the weather conditions, the Cabernet Franc resisted fairly well but mildew still severely reduced our crop to about 30hl/h. With the Chenin, itself a thin-skinned variety, we had to find very short windows to pick so that the grapes not be diluted from water. 

The 2024 reds have nice color and structure, clocking in between 11.5 and 12.5 and without any agressive green notes. It's a little early to tell, but 2024 seems very promising and already superior to 2023, another vintage marked by heavy rain.  

After a dramatic 2023,  we were very worried about the seasonal trends we started seeing in 2024. The winter was hot and dry and caused early budding and flowering. Spring was normal with the right amount of rain. The vines were beautiful and full of grapes. This is perhaps due to the fact that last year the plants had practically no production in 2023 and had accumulated reserves for the following year.

Throughout the spring we let cover crops grow vigorously: broad beans, mustard, barley and vetch accompanied the vegetative push of the vines. July and August were extremely hot and above all completely without rain. Some areas of the vineyards suffered and there we had to harvest very early because the grapees were burning. But more generally, the stress blocked the ripening of the grapes: a year that seemed very precocious in the end was one of the slowest in recent years. With the beginning of September very nice rains arrived that helped plump up the grapes.

It was a joyful harvest. We harvested a lot of grapes, very healthy and with excellent acidity. Alcohol this year was lower than usual. We will have light and fresh wines, very easy to drink but the Crus will be also complex wines thanks to the beautiful acidity that will guarantee excellent evolution over time. Now we are waiting for the oxidation-reduction processes related to the fine lees to enrich the wines during the winter.

Year after year the vine's growing cycle is getting shorter due to high summer temperatures (reaching up to 115°F) and low rainfall (about 150 mm/year). Our vineyards are not irrigated but I think irrigation will become necessary if things continue this way! Strangely enough, the younger vineyards have coped better with the stress than the older ones, and I think this made me realize that within a farm there should always be a balance between young, mid-life and old vines!

It is inexplicable that the Catarratto produced more than 2023, while the nero d'avola was down about 30 percent. The wines always have a certain freshness, and I really don't understand where it comes from this year, as they are slightly higher in alcohol. 

A big hug.

Stefania e Turi

2024 was complicated climactically. We harvested many grapes affected by mildew, as we had too much rain and not enough sun. 

Harvest started on October 2nd with the Chenin for Champ Chenin under cool but dry weather. The following day we picked the Chenin in Les Picasses in perfect health. On October 4th we began with the Cabernet destined to make rosé, which today consist of our youngest vines in the Bourg of Savigny: they have been farmed organically for four years and our neighbor does not want to vinify them.

On October 7th, the weather began to clear up and we harvested the Cabernet from sandy soils, picking for a week straight until we got to Les Picasses. We wrapped up on October 18th. Eric and Arnaud can confirm the rosé is very aromatic and textural, but for the rest it's a little early to judge.  

The harvest was exactly as we'd anticipated: tiny because of frost which affected 80% of the crop. What we did harvest was of excellent quality. 

More than anything, we had an amazing team that brought us incredible energy and limitless joy!!!!! 

So to recap: very little harvested but magnificent energy!

Anne,

Just like in many other parts of Italy and Europe, 2024 has been really difficult for us in Dolceaqua. After nearly three years of drought, we finally got rain. But in the worst moments: heavy rain during the blooming period through mid-July almost every day. This led to major issues with mildew and a loss of about 25% of our crop.

By the end of August, badgers and wild boars created another huge problem by eating half of the remaining grapes (both the vermentino and the rossese di dolceacqua). In the end, we have about 50% of a normal crop...

We are now harvesting our olives and hoping for a better 2025.