4 minute read
Hangin' Around
As the harvest begins in Burgundy and Beaujolais Dan Farrell-Wright asks whether 2024 has the potential to be a great vintage...
As the sun rose over Haytor I started the electric motor on our whizzy new Volkswagen ID Buzz Cargo. Katy and I were off to Burgundy and Beaujolais to meet with producers at the start of the growing season.
Was 2024 poised to be a great vintage?
The journey had been meticulously planned. Breakfast at Solstice Park would double up as a recharging stop to add enough power to carry us to the Eurotunnel Terminal (where a bank of super-fast chargers would be waiting to top us up further). A full battery would get us from Calais to Reims, the unofficial capital of Champagne, with time to freshen up before a flashy dinner engagement at 8:30pm.
The chargers at Solstice Park where full. The chargers at the Eurotunnel where broken. It transpires that to achieve the advertised range you need warm weather, a slow yet steady pace, and no desire to use the optional extras such as the radio or heating. At 8.32pm we dashed, unrefreshed, from the van to the restaurant; hotel check-in would have to wait.
The following morning we left Reims for Chablis. Much like the rest of 2024, Sunday 24th March was wet. Around the village of La Chapelle de Vaupelteigne ducks swam leisurely in the low-lying, flatter vineyards. The previous days hardship paled into insignificance compared to the difficulties being faced by the regions vignerons. On average Burgundy receives between 800mm and 1000mm of rain each year, this Sunday deluge brought the total rainfall for the year to more than 800mm, a years' worth of rain in less than three months.
A few days later the Au Fils du Zinc restaurant posted an image on Instagram of their submerged dining room.
Thanks to good drainage the premier and grand cru vineyards (i.e. those on the slopes) looked in better shape The same could be observed in the quick draining, sandy, granitic soils of the Beaujolais Cru. That said, in late July the premier cru village of Meursault suffered a landslide due to the intensity of the rain.
From Chablis we headed for the Beaujolais village of Chénas, where the temperature is generally 1-2ºC warmer. Already the vines had started to bud, making this one of the most precocious vintages in recent memory. Everyone was worried about late frosts (the vineyards are not safe until well in to May), and, if the rain persisted, mildew.
We left France with a van fully ladened with wine, mild electric vehicle range anxiety, and a sense that 2024 would be a tough year.
Since our visit, rain has remained constant and mildew has been an ever-present threat. April brought frost and more flooding In June hail decimated Chablis premier cru vineyards of Fourchaume and Fontenay.
Now, as the harvest gets under way, I asked Cecile Dardenelli of Domaine Bel Avenir whether 2024 looks great, like 1964, or disappointing like 2014, 2004, 1994, 1984, and 1974. She explained, "so much bad weather from January to the end of July gave us quite a fright."
Thankfully most of their vines are in the hilly crus of northern Beaujolais, "our vineyard is well structured. Alain had no problem spraying the vines with his tractor, as we have paths every ten rows. He did not need to go inside the rows which were soaked. At some estates tractors are abandoned like plants in the vineyards!
"As a result, and unlike other winegrowers in our area and elsewhere, we have no disease at all. The bunches are very healthy - though small - and we can already taste this lovely subtle nectar. You really get the impression of biting into a cherry. The skin is quite thick and the juice is dense.
"We started sampling on 5th September to determine the order in which we'll pick the vines. This is very important so that we can vinify the wines in the best possible way and give them what we really want - freshness, fruitiness, colour and alcohol."
In a difficult year it is the small decisions made by the vignerons which determine the success, or otherwise, of the vintage. Cecile finished by assuring me, "once again we can say that the 2024 bel Avenir vintage will be a very fine vintage."
Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating and it could be at least a year before we sample much from the 2024 harvest. However, Beaujolais Nouveau Day, celebrated annually on the third Thursday in November, gives us a first glimpse of the new vintage
