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Français2024 Vintage — A Fresh, Selective Year to Read with Precision
Buying a 2024 wine requires careful reading. In several European regions, the vintage was marked by rain, disease pressure, low yields and ripeness that was sometimes difficult to achieve. It is therefore not an automatic-buy vintage, but rather a year of selection, in which the best producers can offer fresh, precise and elegant wines.
The most solid buying priorities are found among dry white wines, selected sweet wines, German Rieslings, the best wines from Napa Valley and cuvées from estates capable of rigorous sorting. Bordeaux can offer attractive opportunities, particularly thanks to more accessible pricing, while Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône Valley should be approached estate by estate.
For the safest purchases, favour great 2024 white wines, Sauternes and Barsac sweet wines, German Rieslings and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bordeaux, seek out estates that managed to preserve ripeness, freshness and precision. In Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône Valley, quality will depend strongly on the producer, sorting and the level of precision in the vineyard.
The strongest choices: German Rieslings, dry whites from leading estates, Sauternes and Barsac, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
For lovers of freshness: Germany, selected Champagne, white Burgundy, dry white Bordeaux.
To buy selectively: red Bordeaux, red Burgundy, red Rhône wines, Champagne depending on house and cuvée.
Avoid automatic purchases: red wines from secondary producers, poorly documented cuvées, heavily affected regions without rigorous sorting.
What is the style of 2024 wines?
2024 is a vintage of freshness, tension and selection. In regions most affected by rain, the wines can be lighter, less concentrated and marked by moderate alcohol levels. In the hands of the best producers, this freshness can become an asset: the wines gain precision, aromatic brightness and drinkability. Whites, sweet wines and selected reds from well-managed terroirs appear to offer the most interesting profiles.
Bordeaux 2024: a vintage of selection and opportunity
In Bordeaux, 2024 is a demanding vintage, marked by wet weather, significant disease pressure and ripeness that required great discipline. The reds should not be compared with great solar vintages such as 2019, 2020 or 2022. However, the best estates can offer a fresher, more classical and more digestible style.
Part of the vintage’s appeal also lies in price: several major châteaux released their wines at more attractive levels than in recent vintages. For a discerning buyer, 2024 can therefore represent an opportunity, provided one focuses on estates that truly succeeded in sorting, extraction and balance.
To favour: Pomerol, Saint-Émilion, Pessac-Léognan, selected classified growths, dry white Bordeaux.
Best for: lovers of fresher, classical, less massive and more accessible Bordeaux.
Buying priority: selective, interesting when pricing is coherent and the estate is reliable.
Sauternes and Barsac 2024: freshness, purity and fine tension
Sauternes and Barsac 2024 may be among the most interesting categories of the vintage. In a fresh and humid year, the best sweet wines should stand out through aromatic brightness, natural acidity and a more chiselled profile rather than rich opulence.
The most successful wines may offer notes of candied citrus, apricot, fine honey, white flowers, saffron and exotic fruit, with a sense of purity and tension. This style can appeal to lovers of sweet wines that are less heavy, more precise and highly digestible.
To favour: Sauternes, Barsac, leading châteaux, half-bottles, cuvées with fine freshness.
Best for: lovers of precise, luminous and less opulent sweet wines.
Buying priority: high for the best estates.
Burgundy 2024: low yields, classical style and careful selection
In Burgundy, 2024 was a difficult year, with low yields, disease pressure and significant demands in the vineyard. Quality is expected to depend strongly on producer, sector and the ability to sort severely. The wines are unlikely to have the richness of solar vintages, but the best may offer a more classical, fresh and precise style.
Whites often seem better placed than reds, especially when estates preserved ripeness, energy and balance. Reds may appeal through delicacy and transparency, but broad or insufficiently documented purchases should be avoided.
To favour: leading estates, selected Chablis, white Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits from rigorous producers.
Best for: lovers of classical, fresh, gastronomic and less solar Burgundy.
Buying priority: selective, strong only from the best producers.
Champagne 2024: low volumes, freshness and cuvée-by-cuvée reading
In Champagne, 2024 was marked by reduced yields and significant mildew pressure. Quality should therefore not be generalised too quickly. The vintage will need to be assessed house by house, village by village and cuvée by cuvée.
The best wines may express a fresh, tense, precise and rather classical style. Producers able to preserve purity, ripeness and balance will be the most interesting, especially for Blancs de Blancs, single-parcel cuvées and base wines intended for blending.
To favour: leading houses, precise growers, Blancs de Blancs, single-parcel cuvées, magnums if available.
Best for: lovers of fresh, upright and elegant Champagnes, subject to careful selection.
Buying priority: to be confirmed according to the cuvées actually declared.
Rhône Valley 2024: freshness, tension and reduced volumes
In the Rhône Valley, 2024 appears to be a vintage of freshness, balance and limited volumes. Whites seem particularly interesting, while reds may offer less alcoholic, more digestible and fresher profiles than in very solar years.
Selection will remain important. Some reds may lack concentration, but the best estates should offer precise, fruit-driven, tense and highly gastronomic wines. The vintage may appeal to lovers of Rhône wines that are less powerful, more balanced and more accessible.
To favour: Rhône whites, Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, Saint-Joseph, Gigondas, selected Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Best for: lovers of fresh, digestible, balanced and less solar Rhône wines.
Buying priority: high for whites and the best producers, more selective for reds.
Germany 2024: fresh, elegant and highly digestible Rieslings
In Germany, 2024 is a very interesting vintage for lovers of Riesling that is fresh, precise and elegant. Conditions did not produce massive or highly solar wines, but the best producers can offer luminous, delicate, saline Rieslings driven by fine acidity.
The style should appeal to lovers of tense, digestible and aromatically pure white wines: citrus, green apple, white peach, flowers, wet stone and saline notes. Kabinett, Spätlese and great dry wines from rigorous producers can represent very fine purchases.
To favour: Mosel, Nahe, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Riesling Kabinett, Spätlese, great dry wines.
Best for: lovers of fresh, fine, saline and highly digestible white wines.
Buying priority: high for leading producers.
Napa Valley 2024: a strong direction outside Europe
In Napa Valley, 2024 appears to be one of the most solid international successes of the vintage. The region experienced a more favourable year than many European areas, with Cabernet Sauvignon expected to combine ripeness, intensity, energy and structure.
The best wines should appeal to lovers of deep and ambitious Californian reds, with expected notes of blackcurrant, blackberry, cedar, graphite, spice, dark chocolate and tobacco. As always in Napa, estate style, alcohol balance and provenance remain essential.
To favour: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, great Bordeaux-style blends, benchmark estates.
Best for: lovers of great modern Cabernets, powerful yet balanced.
Buying priority: very high for benchmark estates.
Piedmont 2024: caution before the major cuvées
In Piedmont, 2024 should still be approached with caution. Humid conditions and disease pressure made the year demanding, with results that will need to be assessed estate by estate. The great Barolo and Barbaresco wines cannot be judged definitively until after ageing.
The most rigorous producers will certainly be able to offer fine, fresh and elegant Nebbiolo, but it is too early to present 2024 as a confirmed great classical vintage. Patience, observation and estates with an established record of consistency should be favoured.
To favour: leading producers, Barbaresco and Barolo to follow, Nebbiolo from well-exposed terroirs.
Best for: patient buyers willing to wait for the first serious tastings.
Buying priority: cautious, to be confirmed after élevage and bottling.
Buying a 2024 wine
Buying a 2024 wine can be interesting, but broad purchases should be avoided. This vintage should be considered a year of selection, with particular attention to whites, sweet wines, Rieslings, Napa Valley and the most rigorous European estates.
European reds will require greater caution, especially when they come from regions heavily affected by rain or mildew. The right approach is to favour reliable producers, clearly identified cuvées and wines whose balance is built on freshness, precision and aromatic purity.
2024: a fresh, selective and promising vintage from the best producers
The 2024 vintage is not homogeneous, but it can offer very fine opportunities when purchases are well targeted. The best choices are found among German Rieslings, dry white wines, sweet wines, selected Bordeaux, the best wines of the Rhône Valley and great Napa Valley Cabernets.
To enrich a cellar with fresh, precise wines from demanding estates, discover our selection of 2024 wines and choose the cuvées best suited to your taste, your cellar and your drinking horizon.
