2024 NORTHERN RHÔNE
INTRODUCTION
I am going to take a decent look at the 2024 vintage, a year that has probably lodged in many people's minds as indifferent, variable, and so on, the more so if extrapolating from the Bordeaux 2024 scenario.
The Northern Rhône fared better than those obviously blighted regions, but selection will remain the key - the work of growers in the vineyards to treat and stay ahead of the game, notably. There is pleasing fruyit in those I have tasted so far, and enough body to provide wines of interest.
Being a low sunshine-heat vintage, the whites are fresh and busy, and will drink well from an early stage.
There follow comments from growers with whom I have discussed the year, to give a general idea of matters.
2024 CONDRIEU
CHRISTOPHE BLANC: “2024 is a year of freshness and interest; it was a hard year in the vineyards, with a lot of mildew and lost harvest – that loss served to concentrate aromas, so it’s certainly fully aromatic with a bel balance, the pHs interesting. I was down 20% on my Viognier, 20-30% on my Marsanne and Roussanne.”
JEAN-PAUL JAMET, DOMAINE JAMET: “the 2024 whites are top, nicely ripe, 13.3°, magic. We lost 25% of the Condrieu.”
BRYAN MOUTON: “the harvest was very joli, and handled the conditions of difficult weather better than the Syrah. The harvest was golden in colour, and the wines have aromatic richness. The Châtillon was 14°, the other wines from Bonnette and Corbéry were 13°-13.4°, the yield 31 hl/ha.”
ANDRÉ PERRET: “August was correct in 2024, and we accelerated to harvest, and were numerous – 28 - before announced heavy rain on 8 September. As a result, we waited two days, and went hard from 10 September, taking about 10 days overall, with rain the following day at the end. We had to harvest because the Syrah was degrading. The Viognier was in better condition than the Syrah, which was fragile.”
2024 CORNAS
OLIVIER CLAPE: "crop levels were affected from the start with coulure at flowering. It was never really hot during the growing season – there would be two to three days of heat, then a storm. 2023 saw a similar rainfall, but it came later, from the end of May into July. There were also very hot 10 days and nights [27°C) in August, 2023.
In 2024, the vines kept functioning in the absence of the heat spike, but were only on 11.5° to 12° on 22 August, with high acidity. This was followed by four to five days of South Wind and heat, which prompted the Syrah to gain 1.5°, and the whites to gain 2° in one week. It wasn’t a concentration – it was just accelerated ripening.
The other aspect in 2024 was the rarity of the North Wind, so there was rain coming from the South and South-West. We had a North Wind on 10 September, a bit late! Things have reversed in the past two years, so what we have now is one day of North Wind, and five days of South Wind, hence a greater Mediterranean influence.
The 2024 harvest was a lot more attractive than 2023’s – we were taking absolutely no chances or risks with treatments this year after the experience of 2023. We started the harvest on 4 September, when there was a poor forecast, and over 50 mm [2+ in] fell the next day, 5 September. On the Sunday 8 September there was another 50 mm [2 in]. These rains didn’t impact the hillsides too much, but they diluted the Côtes du Rhône and Vin de France vineyards on the plain.”
NICOLAS SERRETTE, DUMIEN-SERRETTE: “there were spring rains in 2024, so it was difficult to be satisfied. The mildew wasn’t too bad. June was mixed, fresh and a bit rainy until mid-July when summer weather started. We had a heat spike in August, which was beau and dry, with days at 38°C, but no hydric stress and a North Wind that offset that. We started the harvest on 10 September, five days later than 2023. August accelerated the ripening, so we took our time on the harvest, across three weeks, ending on 2 October. The degree was 13°, below 2023’s 13.4°, the yield was 38 hl/ha.”
JACQUES LEMENICIER: “2024 was complicated, but can be good. It will be a rapid drinker, more so than 2023 or 2022, the reds fresh with a little less tannic structure than the 2023.”
LIONEL FRAISSE, DOMAINE ALAIN VOGE: “2024 is the vintage that will keep best of the trio 2022, 2023 and 2024. The bunches were small, the yield 32 hl/ha with juice in the grapes. 2024 is the most balanced of recent vintages – 2021 and 2024 are grand years of the future since their alcohol is not too high, and the tannins were ripe. From a tasting point of view, for balance, I have 2024 over 2023 for now.”
2024 CÔTE-RÔTIE
PATRICK JASMIN: “2024 is lively, the degree 12.4°-12.5° - I didn’t want to chaptalize it. It’s balanced, and the wines are digestible, can be drunk quite soon, even before 2022. I did only eight treatments, treating at night when there was no wind. It wasn’t mildew that lost us the most harvest, but there was coulure – flowers not converting into fruit, and the bunches were loose. The vineyard is now half organic. We started both 2023 and 2024 on 17 September.”
NICOLAS CHAMPAGNEUX: “it’s lucky August was fine in 2024; I had an under 20% loss from rot and blight, and the degree was 13° without chaptalisation – the late season on Les Grandes Places always brings some degree.”
JEAN-PAUL JAMET, DOMAINE JAMET: “2024 pleases me well – it has the expression of the 1980s, freshness, with a belle 12.5°-13°, matter, fruit, and not the gourmandise of the hotter recent years. Everything is in place for it to turn out well. The harvest ran from 12 September, four days later than 2023, until 4 October. The yield was 35 hl/ha, with the allowance 40 hl/ha this year.”
CLÉMENT SEMASKA: “2024 was very complicated, but I am very happy, the results good. Physically it was very tough, and I am super proud with how it turned out, the wines very jolis. It was our first officially organic vintage, and we did 17 treatments of small doses, very frequent, so the leaf canopy looked good.”
PIERRE BURGAUD: “2024 is half way between 2022 and 2020, with the freshness of 2021. Acidity levels are good, hence the freshness, but there is also concentration. The tannins are bels, fine and also fresh. The vintage will be talked down because it was poor and difficult in Bordeaux and Burgundy. The yield of 39.9 hl/ha was normal, given we had a fight against mildew, as well as coulure at flowering when the weather was cool.
2024 is a year that drinks well with attractive gourmandise . There was a lot of malic acid, so after the malolactic fermentations it’s settling down into a classic Côte-Rôtie year. You shouldn’t fear chaptalisation, and with my harvest running from 11.8°-12.2°, I raised it to 13° - the alcohol brings improved balance. The degrees on the plateau were higher than on the hillsides, given we waited until 5 October.”
2024 CROZES-HERMITAGE RED
RAPHAËL FAUGIER, DOMAINE DES HAUTS CHÂSSIS: “2024 is a joli year, especially after all the setbacks in the vineyards; there was very good ripeness. It’s similar to 2023, but a bit better, has a belle complexity, the degree 13°, so jolis vins.”
MAXIME GRAILLOT, DOMAINE ALAIN GRAILLOT: “2024 was very stressful, a lot of treatments required, but we managed to treat correctly, losing very little, just 10% on the Syrah. It has the phenolic ripeness of the 2023 vintage, allied to the power that comes from a yield of around 37 hl/ha, lower than usual. We were so happy to have a good level of ripeness at harvest, which permitted me to work more on the vinifications – I felt this year that you could seek more in the cellar, which was a reaction from my 2023 experience. 2024 and 2023 have similar balance, both around 13°. 2024 is a serious vintage.”
LAURENT COMBIER: “2024 has very good quality, some exceptional cuvées – there wasn’t a lot of harvest, the bunches small. The mildew effect was mild, mainly a small amount of juice in the grapes. August saved us – the heat – while nights were fresh, which meant a normal style ripening. We started the 15 September, later than previous years. The degree averaged 12°, against 12.5°-13° in 2023.”
PHILIPPE JABOULET: “the 2024 Syrah has a black colour, since the start, is very fruited, a bit more tender than 2023, the wines festive, the degree mainly between 12.8° and 13°, lower than recently, the Vieilles Vignes Nouvelère at 13.5°. 2023 was 0.5° higher.”
2024 CROZES-HERMITAGE WHITE
RAPHAËL FAUGIER, DOMAINE DES HAUTS CHÂSSIS: “the 2024 whites are very beau, with handsome acidity and ripeness.”
MAXIME GRAILLOT, DOMAINE ALAIN GRAILLOT: “2024 will be a great year for the white. I like it a lot. The harvest was full, the yield of 45 hl/ha bringing more fluid and expressive wines than the more concentrated 2023 and 2022, when yields were around half.”
LAURENT COMBIER: “there’s a bit more power than in 2023, the degree correct at 13°, with a little tannin because of the low harvest.”
YANN CHAVE: “2024 is a bit higher acidity than 2023, is a very sympa year. There was a lot of mildew on the Marsanne, which is prone to it. If you missed out on treatments on it, you were in trouble – a lot of people have lost out in 2024 as a result.”
2024 SAINT-JOSEPH RED
JOËL DURAND: “2024 has good acidity support, is rather Burgundy in the Northern Rhône, as against the Southern Rhône-influenced 2019 and 2020 vintages.”
FRÉDÉRIC BOISSONNET: “2024 was complicated, economically. Due to the rain, a lot of aereation was required in the vineyard, so we could get on top of the mildew. One plot took a bad hit. The plateau above Serrières was OK – it was the sheltered spots that had more mildew. It’s a joli year, the fruit evident, the degree 12.5°-13°, a bit less than 2023.”
YVES CUILLERON: “2024 was later harvested than recently, and has given fresh wines, with acidity and good balance also.”
2024 SAINT-PÉRAY
LIONEL FRAISSE, DOMAINE ALAIN VOGE: “in 2024 there was less wind at Saint-Péray than at Cornas, so a lot of mildew all through the season, and even if you were rigorous on treatments people lost half their harvest. What remained was very joli, and fresh also. The wines taste well, are a bit more tense-vertical than 2023.”
LIONEL FRAISSE, DOMAINE ALAIN VOGE: “in 2024 there was less wind at Saint-Péray than at Cornas, so a lot of mildew all through the season, and even if you were rigorous on treatments people lost half their harvest. What remained was very joli, and fresh also. The wines taste well, are a bit more tense-vertical than 2023.”
JACQUES LEMENICIER: “the white I lost half the crop, from frost and poor flowering, as well as deer and birds eating the grapes. It’s a low acidity year for Saint-Péray, the quality similar to 2014 and 2004.”
CHARLÈNE CELLIER, DOMAINE CHABOUD-CELLIER: “mildew on the Marsanne in 2024, but no oïdium on the Roussanne. 2024 is truly very beau, with a good level of malic acidity. The yield was a little down on 2023.”: “the white I lost half the crop, from frost and poor flowering, as well as deer and birds eating the grapes. It’s a low acidity year for Saint-Péray, the quality similar to 2014 and 2004.”
CHARLÈNE CELLIER, DOMAINE CHABOUD-CELLIER: “mildew on the Marsanne in 2024, but no oïdium on the Roussanne. 2024 is truly very beau, with a good level of malic acidity. The yield was a little down on 2023.”