Loire 2024: The Weather
The 2024 vintage in the Loire Valley presented vignerons with a greater and more diverse array of challenges than ever before, which inevitably had an impact on the style and quality of the wines. In this instalment of my 2024 Loire Valley reports, I bring out the key features of the year’s weather, with some comments from the region’s leading vignerons.
A Wet & Mild Winter
The 2024 season was characterised by high levels of rainfall, and low levels of sunshine, and other than an unusually sunny January, this was certainly the state of play during the first few months of the year. The mild and wet conditions during winter prompted a relatively early budbreak, with early-ripening varieties in the Atlantic vineyards bursting forth in mid-March, the vineyards further inland following suit over the next couple of weeks.
Such an early budbreak raises the risk of frost, as the temperatures could tumble at any moment. Fortuitously, the weather remained mild, and for most regions there was no significant frost; a few places saw a smidge, but the one exception was Châteaumeillant, which was devastated by a run of frosty nights from April 20th until the 24th, with between 80% and 90% of the appellation affected. A few in Coteaux de Giennois, and in the cooler corners of Vouvray were also affected. While they licked their wounds, most vignerons breathed a sigh of relief; sadly, they did not realise that the season still had many alternative challenges to offer them.
A Spring Dogged by Poor Weather
Principal among these challenges was a familiar one; mildew. The mild and wet weather dragged on through March, April, May and into the summer months. Indeed, every month of 2024, from January through to July, saw levels of rainfall significantly higher than the average. Only August would buck the trend, although as it would turn out it would be a temporary reprieve. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though; let’s stick with spring.
With persistently high mildew pressure anything other than a proactive and committed response would result in the loss of the entire crop to fungal attack. From April onwards vignerons – whether biodynamic, organic or conventional – were out spraying whatever treatments their personal dogmas allowed. Those working in organics sprayed the most of course, typically about twenty times, give or take a few treatments depending on local conditions.
“Typically an organic domaine such as ours might do 12 to 14 sprayings in one season,” said Vincent Lieubeau in Muscadet, “so at 21 sprayings we applied almost double the norm.”
The conditions in the vineyard hampered access, and even those with caterpillar vehicles had difficulty gaining access to the vines; it was challenging to keep up with the necessary programme of treatments, and the mildew undoubtedly impacted yields.
The second less commonly encountered challenge presented was filage.
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