BORDEAUX 2024

The 2024 Bordeaux vintage experienced a challenging growing season marked by unpredictable weather, including heatwaves, dry spells, heavy rainfall, and hailstorms. These conditions impacted the vines, leading to issues like poor fruit set (coulure) and uneven grape development (millerandage). Despite this, the vintage shows promise in both red and white wines, although production is smaller than average.

Red Wines:

Favorable ripening conditions resulted in balanced wines with good fruit concentration.

Cool nights preserved aromatic freshness.

Quality varies across the region, with comparisons to vintages like 2004 or 1999.

White Wines:

Early September harvest produced fresh and aromatic wines.

Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon exhibit excellent balance between acidity and alcohol.

Slightly less sweetness compared to 2023, but overall quality is high.

Market Outlook:

Yields are 10% lower than in 2023, with production down 16% compared to the five-year average.

Producers focused on quality by removing less favorable vineyard plots.

In summary, the 2024 Bordeaux vintage, though smaller, offers wines of balance and elegance, especially for those seeking freshness in whites and harmonious reds.

WHAT IS BORDEAUX EN PRIMEUR?

Buying En Primeur - means purchasing wine that is still maturing in the barrel and has not yet been bottled. 

The top chateaux in Bordeaux offer the majority of their wines (approximately 80-90%) for sale as En Primeur in the spring following the harvest. As a result, this is the first opportunity to purchase the new vintage. Bordeaux is the most important wine that is traded as En Primeur, but some other regions and producers also make their wines available.

WHY BUY EN PRIMEUR? 

The advantages of buying En Primeur are:
- To Purchase wine at the first release price, when the margins made by wine merchants are the smallest. In most vintages, although not always the case, the price of the wine increases, and the margins made by the wine merchants also increase once the wine is offered for sale in the bottle.

- To secure allocations of hard-to-find wines and varying formats (half bottles, magnums, double magnums, imperials, and even larger) as soon as they are available for purchase.

- To ensure perfect provenance by owning the wine from its first release.

- To secure wine for a special birth year - as a gift for children, grandchildren, godchildren or for weddings and anniversaries. 

- When selling wines, ownership since initial release can bring higher prices.