Vintage 2024

Description of the Vintage

The 2024 vintage will certainly be remembered as an unusual vintage, defying climate change. Looking at the precise rain recordings over our different weather stations, we can see between 30% to 50% above average rainfalls on our different vineyards. Wintzenheim and Turckheim ‘only’ had 595mm and 667mm respectively, which compared to 504mm average doesn’t seem that high. It is in fact drier than most of France wine regions in a normal vintage! Gueberschwihr and Thann on the opposite had much higher yearly records at 830mm and 1248mm! Clos Windsbuhl in Hunawihr is almost normal with 764mm.

July and August are within normal averages! 2024 didn’t have extreme high temperatures periods, which reminded us of past growing seasons not often seen nowadays. Winter 23/24 was very wet, causing delays on most ploughing programs and winter work. Beside a cold early January, temperatures were above normal most winter months. A short but necessary cold period in March delayed the budbreak to the first week of April. The risk of frost was very high at the end of April, but no vineyards were affected by spring frosts in 2024. Important rainfalls in May increased dramatically the risk of mildew (downy mildew). The experience of 2021, very similar, made us improve some of our equipment and ability to intervene faster and more efficiently, so the vineyard team was able to control the disease. The first week of June was warm and dry, and the vines took this opportunity to go through flowering. Luckily, because it was followed by a cold and rainy period that would have affected the flowering, at the exception of the Rangen vineyard that was unfortunately hit by the cold causing important flower loss. After mid-July, the temperatures climbed with drier conditions. August was very warm with some sparse strong stormy rainfalls. Going to September, the weather became much cooler.

The harvest started September 10th and became quickly erratic! We had a couple of days of rainfalls almost every week, usually early or middle of the week, which obliged us to stop and start and harvest every weekend. Logistic and harvest organisation was crucial in 2024, and having a team able to harvest Sundays for example was crucial. The harvest finished Sunday 6th October at the Windsbuhl. Monday 7th it started to rain heavily! In past vintages, mostly very dry and hot, we forgot how important drainage can be for a top-quality vineyard. 2024 was a vintage where rocky hillsides, well drained soils (calcareous, gravels, granite, volcanic for example) really showed their superiority. Obviously, cultivating vineyards to minimize soil compaction and allowing cover crops or green growth to absorb the excessive water also helped obtaining better and earlier ripeness. The main problem in Alsace in 2024 was to be able to harvest the grapes before they would start developing grey rot. The strong point of 2024 are wines with normal ripeness level (no excessive alcohol or sugar) and good to very good acidities. The micro-organism metabolism in the soils was at its peak in summer 2024, boosted by enough rainfalls. The consequence is that most wines fermented well and perhaps quicker than usual. There are always a few wines that would require building up starters to make them finish the fermentations the following spring, but much less than in a vintage like 2022 for example. 2024 is turning out to be a classic Alsace vintage with elegant fresh structures and a good to very good ageing potential. Valley floor vineyards produced a good quantity of grapes, hillsides, especially granitic/volcanic soils, showed slightly lower to very low yields.