2024

A disastrous harvest !

Once again, the vagaries of the weather have caught up with us. This year, extreme weather conditions have not only tested our patience, they have also had a profound impact on our harvest. Last year, we celebrated our best harvest since Domaine Chapelle & Fils switched to certified organic farming. The euphoria of this success was short-lived. Twelve months later, we have broken another record, but this one has a bitter taste: we have recorded the lowest harvest in the estate's history. These contrasts remind us that we are in a profession where the excitement of great vintages goes hand in hand with the harshness of years of loss.

Start of the season : Winter left us with waterlogged soil, and the first few weeks of the year seemed set to follow suit. However, the end of winter and the dawn of spring offered us a glimmer of hope: milder conditions and the awakening of the vines promised great things to come. There was little late frost to complain about, except for one sudden, very localised episode that struck our Pommard plot and wiped out more than half of its potential. Overall, rainfall was easing off, and we were approaching the season with confidence, feeling that we were embarking on a promising campaign, with each bunch of grapes offering hope for a successful vintage.

May, june, july, august : This confidence quickly evaporated. From March to the end of July, the rain never stopped, breaking record after record and turning each week into a new challenge. It was impossible to enter the vineyards with our usual tools without risking getting stuck in the soggy soil. We had to adapt our mechanical weeding practices and switch to working by hand (brush cutters, mowers, etc.), making the task endless and exhausting. And as if that weren't enough, every rain shower washed away our copper and sulphur treatments, reducing our efforts to nothing. Mildew found ideal conditions here: it struck early, directly on the bunches, and single-handedly destroyed more than half of the harvest.

Harvest : We began harvesting at the very end of September and finished in October, a situation we had not experienced since 2013. Once again, we had to accept a further reduction in quantity: rigorous, ruthless but essential sorting was necessary in order to preserve the quality we value so highly.

Tasting notes red

For the reds, we were expecting light wines, much like in 2021 — and yet… the low yields, sometimes reduced to almost nothing (ranging from 0 to 22 hl/ha depending on the plots), have concentrated the substance. These 2024 wines, still reserved in their aromas, already hold the promise of age-worthy wines, with a density and balance that suggest great potential ahead.

Tasting notes white

The whites, nevertheless, reveal a lovely liveliness, with freshness and acidity reminiscent of the 2021 vintage.