2024 Vintage Report at Bluestone Vineyards

Season Overview

Using data from Nigel Marriott at Marriott-stats.com, with his permission, we can see that 2024 provided a very average year with respect to weather. In Nigel’s words 2024 was an ‘unremarkable’ year.

Winter 2024

Warm, bright and wet, consistent with the long-term average.

The Winter that is relevant for the 2024 season begins in December 2023 and finishes in February 2024. During this time the vines are dormant and enjoying a well deserved rest. We want the winters to be cold with replenishing rains to top up water supplies lying deep under our chalky soils.

The cold encourages the grapevine to draw nutrients away from its extremities, the shoots, and into the permanent parts of the plant, the trunk and roots. This process kickstarts towards the end of Autumn when leaves start to drop. We allow for this for as long as we can before we begin to prune the vines, usually at the end of January. Pruning can last into April, and usually depends on personpower and Toby’s energy level. 

As 2023 was a heavy cropping year, we took the decision to control the fruit potential at pruning by leaving fewer buds per cane i.e shorter canes, often leaving vines with one fruiting cane (single Guyot) as opposed to two (double Guyot) in certain parts of the vineyard. 

Spring 2024

A warm, dull and very wet, and a relatively more stormy Spring. This is an outlier when comparing the data to the long-term average. The long-term average shows that generally we have warm, sunny and normal rainfall. 

Frost days were extremely low both in April and May, which was very welcome. 

Spring, when flecks of green life and warmer weather begin to return to our seemingly colourless, wet and cold world. It’s a joy to behold. We were still pruning and tying the fruiting canes at this time of year and anticipating budburst in the vineyard. Budburst was later than usual beginning at the end of April. The lack of sun and abundance of rain caused a lag in growth across the vineyard due to some nutrient deficiencies, which were rectified through foliar feeding.

Snails seemed to be invading the vineyard like nobody’s business. I suppose down to the fact that there had been so much rain and some very successful breeding, randy buggers. 

We probably saw more buds being eaten, and therefore damage, in the vines as a result of the snails. Typical, you escape Spring frost only for the delicious and juicy buds to be eaten by snails! We see this damage typically on the outer edges of the vineyard close to treelines and hedgerows.

 

Summer 2024

A very average summer, in the literal sense. The data was bang on the long-term average data-set. From an observational point of view in the vineyard, and to others that weren’t, I bet most would recall the summer being pretty appalling; a lack of warmth and sun, and too much rain. That’s certainly how I remember it, and on reflection when you take the 2024 summer in the context of the previous 7 or 8 years where summers were more remarkable, the summer of 2024 was dire. However, this is what an average summer looks like in the UK and the data has reminded us of this. Boooooo!

After a buoyant Spring having had very little Spring frost to worry about, you turn to flowering, which typically occurs in the last week of June and the beginning of July.

We experienced an interrupted and protracted flowering period. This is not good for two reasons; 1. It shortens your ripening period, and  2. You will likely have uneven ripeness from bunch to bunch across the vineyard. This makes things tricky when you get close to harvest time. 

The ideal conditions at flowering require warmth, sun, dry and still weather. Whilst the summer was not unusual, we must have experienced the bad weather at the wrong times, which is pure luck. Whilst the amount of rain and intensity of rain, i.e, storminess, was normal if you get a storm during flowering compared with after flowering you will likely have very different outcomes. 

Overall the summer was tough, mentally and physically. 

We were certainly kept on our toes managing disease pressure. It turns out that a normal UK summer makes for incredibly hard growing for grapevines. The combination of the warmth, the rain and the lower light intensity made for excellent growing conditions for mildew. This is where savvy vineyard management and meticulous care and attention to detail comes in.

Coming out of the summer and into Autumn we came through with an almost full canopy. I have recently watched Masters of the air, which is brilliant by the way, but the visual of the shredded B-17 Flying Fortress returning from tour reminded me of the canopy in 2024. I must say, compared to other vineyards we had visited we had fared incredibly well where not only the canopy was non-existent, but neither was the fruit. It was a really tough summer. 

Veraison was slow and protracted and it felt like nothing was happening. Things quickly changed, as they always do and the Pinot raced through. Chardonnay, the later ripening variety of the three we grow, was sluggish, but making the necessary progress.

Autumn 2024

Another unremarkable season according to the data following the long-term average almost exactly. Generally we experience warm, dry and bright autumns. Autumn plays an increasingly important role in our viticulture season. We are lucky that we are seeing the long-term trend we see. 

As with 2023, the weather in the Autumn of 2024 was hugely important in getting our ripeness levels where we needed them. Although we did not have the extreme heat and sunshine of 2023, we had consistently warm and dry(ish) weather, which gave us a slow burn of accumulation of sugars. September provided more intensive rain sessions, meaning more stormy, which masked berry analysis when testing for chemical ripeness. Rain will cause dilution of all components of the juice and so things appeared lower than they actually were, which can be very misleading.

Although the data shows that the year was very normal, most will feel that it was a poor weather year, which can make life very difficult. 2024 feels abnormal in the short-term where we have seen very hot, dry and bright years at the right times of the season. 

The Harvest 2024

Harvest began on the 13th October with a wonderful group of volunteers picking 6000kg Pinot Noir. Well done, team!

We continued picking the Pinot Noir and Meunier on the 18th October, picking 1500kg and 3000kg respectively. 

The Chardonnay came in over three days, the 26th, 27th, which was another volunteer day, and 31st of October, taking 3500kg, 4500kg, and 2500kg respectively.

The fruit had minimal botrytis infection (1%) at harvest and the majority was cut out or dropped at harvest time in the vineyard. 

The grand total for the 2024 harvest was 21 tonnes. 

The Wines 2024

The fruit was clean and the ripeness was at a good level considering the year. I think we can expect a leaner style from the 2024 vintage, and I reckon we will be pleasantly surprised by the resulting wines from this vintage. The analysis, the flavour and aroma are showing similarities to 2021, which is exciting. Up to this point we have only released one wine from 2021, our current Premier Rosé. It has received some fantastic reviews and comments, including James Goode MW calling is the best Sparkling Rosé that he has tried, which is huge praise.

Media & Critics in 2024

Tamlyn Currin of Jancisrobinson.com tasted and reviewed the following releases: Premier Cuvée 2019, 16/20, Premier Rosé 2021, 16.5/20, and Saignée Rosé 2020, 17.5/20.

With comments such as:

“So far your wines have blown me away. You’re one of the few producers who seem to have found the holy-grail line between idiosyncratic and fine wine.”

Of our Saignée Rosé 2020  “one of the best English sparkling rosés she has ever tasted” 

The Real Review rated us in top wineries in the UK with our Premier Cuvée 2019 winning a gold ribbon and one of the top classic blends in the UK. Our Saignée Rosé 2020 and Premier Cuvée 2021 won silver ribbons.

Club Oenologique  recommended us as one of the top English vineyards to visit on a tour & tasting.

Our Premier Cuvée 2019 was included in the London Evening Standard’s ‘best English wines to drink in 2024’. I must stress that it will also be delicious for the next few years and not just 2024…

Jamie Goode tasting our wine on his Instagram page “one of the best sparkling rosés from England”, “it’s expensive, but it’s really good!”