JEREZ VINTAGE REPORT 2024
Vintage reports are common the wine-world-over. A small window into the story of the year, the ups, downs, and general picture of the grower’s lot and the region as a whole. It is an opportunity to observe changes and patterns at the macro level. But above all, the report outlines the growing conditions, water-reserves, fermentation and ultimately the wine’s quality.
Traditionally Jerez has not gone into much detail regarding respective vintages, believing that the solera system would indiscriminately produce a uniform, consistent style and quality. Indeed, no vintage is specified on the bottle as the mean age of the wine is usually seen as a quality indicator.
This year I have been able to follow the vintage from a first hand-source. Our Diatomists co-founder Tommy de Wangen has taken on 18 hectares of pure albariza in Balbaina Baja a project called Dominio de las Animas (which we will go into in more detail shortly as we ship some of his delicious wines under the Diatomists label).
Tommy has given me an account of the 2024 vintage. Following difficult years in 2022 and 2023 when prices for grapes rocketed and yields plummeted, 2024 was a return to more welcome conditions. Rainfall was good throughout the winter from September 2023 until August 2024, bringing around 500lts (still around 100lts below expected annual rainfall, but a vast improvement on recent years).
The rainfall was a godsend after 2 years of drought and heat-waves (and 5 years of below-par annual rainfall). Essential water reserves have been partly replenished which gave the vines recourse to hydration throughout the growing season (good rainfall is still needed to return to pre-drought levels – so far this winter has been solid).
In February and March 2024 there was little to no rain which caused concern across the region. Mercifully, in April there arrived 15 days of constant, steady rainfall which caused no soil erosion and saturated the albariza soils, famous for their water retention qualities.
Budding in March, April was strong and healthy. Due to the added moisture there were a few isolated cases of mildew. An organic treatment – Bordeaux Mix – was applied minimally at this stage to ensure the grapes remained unaffected.
From May to June 2024 the weather was fine, sunny and without the heat-spikes that had marked 2022 and 2023. The grapes developed well with cool nights and a good diurnal range.
Harvest took place from 18th to 26th August, much later than in recent years. All picking was made during the night to benefit from the cooler conditions and minimise degradation of the fruit. Grapes were taken direct to the cave within the vineyard and pressed within hours of being picked.
Superb grape-pickers carried out the harvest and everything was hand-picked. The pickers have a vast wealth of experience and carry out quality selection, whilst picking, leaving behind damaged or unhealthy grapes.
Tommy was delighted with the quality of the fruit which had excellent natural acidity and fair sugar levels. Yields were good and a vast improvement on the preceding vintages (6,500-7,000kgs/ha, average yields here are above 10,000kgs/ha).
As mentioned above, all pressing took place in the cave at Dominio de las Animas, at the centre of the vineyard. Fermentation commenced naturally and took around 3 weeks in mild, late summer temperatures.
The liquid is now distributed between soleras, French oak barrels and stainless-steel vats. More news to follow on how they develop.
In conclusion, 2024 was a very good vintage. A happy return to more conventional weather conditions and yields, or at least a step in the right direction. The whites have good acidity and sufficient sugar levels. The reds, Tintilla and Syrah, were very healthy and early tastings have revealed great promise.
As I write the rain is falling heavily in Jerez and has been doing so for nearly two weeks. We are not even in the growing season yet, but so far the start to the year has been excellent. We await the development of the vintage with great anticipation and I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the details.