A look back at a difficult 2024 wine-growing season, marked by rain and a few cold spells, but full of hope.
While there has been talk of a soil water deficit for some years now, 2024 has not seen such a deficit, as the season – or rather the year – has been so rainy under the influence of El Nino in the Pacific and the cold snap that has been hovering over France for several months.
As an estimate, we can expect up to twice the average annual rainfall since 1st November 2023 over the Côte des Bar region (i.e. over 1100 mm) or between 250 mm to nearly 600 mm between April 2024 and the beginning of September, depending on the location of our vineyards.
Despite average temperatures above ten-year norms, the cold weather made itself felt on several occasions: Spring frost in April had a major impact on the vineyards of the Côte des Bar and a few plots in the Marne region, as well as widespread stripping due to frost damage in a number of plots (potential bunches of grapes transformed into tendrils). The harvest potential was therefore limited from the outset.
While in recent years we have become accustomed to rapid flowering (just a few days), this year’s less-than-optimal weather conditions resulted in heavy ‘shattering’ (flower fall) and lengthy flowering (almost a month). As a result, berries at different stages of development were found side by side in the same bunch until ripening was complete.
Other weather (hail, scalding), physiological (marked chlorosis at flowering due to lack of light 20 – 30% below normal) or parasitic (exceptional mildew threat reminiscent of 2021) problems have continued to affect the quantity of the harvest and growing dynamics throughout the season. After being several days ahead of schedule at bud burst and then 10 days late at ripening, the vines have finished six days behind the ten-year average.
The available volume this year is 10,000 kg/ha for the Champagne Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). We will need to use part of our reserve (volume between this available volume and our agronomic yield) to arrive at the available volume.
Harvest
Our teams raised awareness, trained, supported and supervised the teams of pickers to ensure perfect sorting of the bunches to be harvested. Everyone played a major role in ensuring that our harvest was of the highest possible quality. In our press rooms the work of the pressers, tank-room operators, press loaders and weighers is coordinated and precise, to ensure the high-quality and precise composition of the lots, the final casting of an expert eye over the grapes before loading, the respectful pressing of the marcs and the attention paid to the musts before transportation in tanks to the Clostermann production facility.
Our in-house ripening network run by our teams throughout our vineyards (more than 700 samples) combined with the profession’s very active networks (run by the Comité Champagne) enable us to determine the best possible opening dates for our pressing centres and picking routes.
In the Côte des Bar, the poor weather during part of the harvest and the yields that were badly affected by the weather conditions throughout the season (frost, damage due to stripping, shattering, hail) and by mildew left a bitter taste… but everything possible was done to bring in some lovely marcs at over 10.5% vol. for the Pinots and Meuniers and over 9% for the Chardonnays.
On our terroirs in the Marne, the change in ripening levels of the Meuniers was very interesting and the Pinots Noirs were harvested as a priority on the picking routes. There are some good levels at around 10.5% vol., with lovely aromas and acidity. The Montagne de Reims area in particular is showing very good ripeness, and some areas that usually ripen late ( Mailly-Champagne or Rilly-la-Montagne/Villers-Allerand) were affected from the start of the picking routes right up to the last day.
At the Pierry press, early harvesting of the ripest black grape varieties from the Epernay region and the Hautvillers area means that we can expect higher levels of ripening and perfect aromas from the plots destined to go into the Folies de la Marquetterie vintage. Our picking route on our Côte des Blancs vintage wine plots began on the weekend of 20 September in the Chouilly area. The late Sézanne area was also harvested in the last part of the harvest.
In our presses, the average strength of the marcs is within an average range of 10 –10.5% vol. for the black grape varieties and 9.0 –10.5% vol. for the Chardonnays. The quality of the grapes and the excellent ripeness of the plots identified have enabled us to produce red wines with great potential for making our rosés.
We can’t wait to taste the still base wines. The efforts made by the vineyard teams throughout the season may not have been in vain! In many respects, 2024 falls between 2012 and 2016: good acidity levels, a good malic acid/tartaric acid ratio, a gradual but linear increase in sugar levels, etc. which means we need to wait for the aromatic change in the berries and a good level of ripeness, particularly for the Chardonnay grape variety. There is a big difference in ripeness between the black varieties and the Chardonnay.
