Burgundy 2024 Vintage Report

'Very British weather' led to elegant whites and beautifully perfumed reds

We sent our very own Rebecca Gray to Burgundy last month to taste her way through over 20 domaines and their 2024 wines. Cask samples and chats in the barrel room gave her this insight into the 2024 vintage

It was a vintage that dealt the regions of Burgundy differing hands, with rain playing a major role to varying degrees. Chablis had a torrid time, experiencing frosts, hail and heavy rain throughout the year, leaving them with a harvest that was down by around 80% and, in the case of some wineries, 95%.

Many of the wines had good intensity of flavour and complexity with a refreshing saline quality on the finish which made them very moreish. We suspect that the reported shortfall is exacerbated by wineries selling the wines that haven’t made the grade to negociants and only bottling the very best of what they have produced in a really tough year.

The Cote D’Or experienced “very British weather” according to a couple of the winemakers. They had a lot of rain and had to manage the vineyards very carefully as mildew and rot were issues and the persistent rain was constantly washing off the treatments, resulting in double the usual number being applied.

Yields, again, were down considerably, with reds being affected more than whites. I was dubious by the claims of a “classic” vintage before my visit, worrying that this was a euphemism for wines that were thin and lacking. I needn’t have worried – the reds were beautifully perfumed and complex with wonderful purity of fruit and lovely texture. The whites of the region were elegant, had beautiful minerality, plenty of fruit character and hints of nuttiness. The vintage allowed the wines to showcase the distinct flavour profiles of the grapes from the individual vineyard plots more successfully than in “easier” vintages. This was particularly evident in (and highlighted by) Domaine Belleville tastings where we tasted over 20 wines, from a selection of their many vineyard sites, side by side.

The wineries that we work with in the Maconnais were more relaxed with both the quantity and ease of the 2024 vintage. Although this has not been universally felt across the region with some producers still reporting significantly lower production, particularly for the reds. The whites that we tasted had beautifully balanced ripe fruit flavours and freshness with mineral and nutty flavours bringing complexity to the wines.