As every year, the Laboratoire Natoli reviews the characteristics of the vintage. The 2024 vintage stands out for its uniqueness, characterized by a return to freshness not seen in recent years.
This vintage is a sharp contrast to previous years dominated by drought. Unlike recent vintages, where heat pushed the harvests earlier, 2024 sees a return to more traditional, later harvest timings.
Furthermore, 2024 is characterized by historically low yields across French vineyards. Agreste’s latest forecasts predict a production of 37 million hectoliters, even lower than the frost-impacted harvest of 2021. In the Languedoc region, yields are down by 9% compared to the previous year. However, the spring and September’s favorable weather conditions helped mitigate the impact.
A Closer Look at the 2024 Vintage:
Like in 2022, the autumn of 2023 failed to replenish soil water reserves. However, significant rainfall in spring 2024 brought relief. 250 mm of rainfall in Nîmes and 80 mm in Béziers was recorded in March. April featured mild weather and early spring rains, but temperatures dropped mid-April and remained cooler in May. In the Hérault region, for instance, average temperatures were 0.1°C to 0.8°C below normal.
These substantial, much-needed rains for soil recharge also posed challenges for vineyards. Issues like poor fruit set, uneven berry sizing, mildew, and cryptoblabes pests required adaptability from winegrowers.
The summer season was relatively dry, with occasional storms in mid-July and mid-August. A brief heatwave in early August did not lead to the concentration effects observed in the 2023 vintage. September brought cooler temperatures and regular rainfall. The sanitary state of the vines and the ripening process benefited from a few days of northerly winds at the end of September.
Promising Quality:
As mentioned earlier, the 2024 vintage, unlike the early ripening of previous years, saw a more gradual ripening process, allowing most of the harvest to take place in September.
Laboratoire Natoli concludes its 2024 vintage report by highlighting “bright aromatic profiles in whites and rosés, and reds that show some heterogeneity in ripeness and concentration depending on the area, but with well-established tannic structures and beautiful fruit expression.”
For weeks now, at CLR, we have been working alongside our partner winemakers to blend these qualities, aiming to bring out the best and bring the 2024 cuvées to life.
The 2024 vintage promises great potential!
