Greatness and misery of the vintage 2024 by Cellar master Antonio Quari

We’ve just finished the harvest and the vinification process. What can I say about this rather rare... and very demanding year? I would say: a vintage of hardship. It’s been a year of rain, from January all the way through July. We had very unpredictable weather, and in the end, we have a vintage... that is historically poor in volume. Old-timers here say that years ending in the number four in Burgundy... are always very complicated, but this one is the worst year ending in four the estate has ever known. We’ve ended up with yields that are almost laughable... A challenging year which involved a lot of sorting. So a huge amount of work was done in the vineyards, as is always the case here, but this year it was even more so, more work than ever... and a lot of fine-tuning in the cellar. Because in a year like this, you need to have the maximum quality... to make the transformation between the terroir and the wine. Unfortunately, this year... for the first time in the Roch's history, we’ve had to leave out some of our plots. We won’t have the Clos des Argillières, We won’t have the Hautes-Mézières, and we won’t have the Côteaux Bourguignons Pinot… This is a clear sign... of the difficult year we’ve endured. In the cellar, it was also a complex year. because unfortunately, compared to 2023, there were so few vats to work with... that unfortunately I didn’t need... many people to help with the work. It’s sad when you work as a team, and not everyone gets to work with the grapes... and experience the cellar work the way we usually do.. It was a sad vintage for me, I was forced to... I had to ask my crew... to do something else, instead of punching down the grapes. I'm just saying, just asking them that alone, was difficult for me, and I could see the sadness in their eyes. because we wait all year for the thrill of the harvest. Unfortunately this year... we just went through the motions. It’s a vintage that is similar... to 2021 among recent years. But 2021 had more volume, and it too was a very lean year. This vintage, we can characterize like that of 2021, as being a quintessential Burgundy, with very low alcohol levels. we’re finishing at 11 to 11.5%. The kind of wine we used to produce 20 to 25 years ago… It’s not over yet, but we’ll produce quality wines, in the style of those classic Burgundies from the past. Alcohol levels aren’t a big concern. Lower alcohol content really brings out the terroir. This provides a liveliness, a certain vibrancy to the Pinot... which is hard to achieve for our very sunny vintages. And it's a vintage which... I remember, for example, the Clos de Vougeot 2011, which, because we don’t chaptalize... we had 0.25% less alcohol, than is required by the Clos de Vougeot appellation. So we downgraded our Clos de Vougeot to Vougeot Premier Cru, and I believe it is one of the finest Vougeots we’ve ever made! So, I’m confident about this vintage. I still hold onto hope, because they say years ending in five, are more generous than ones ending in four. So... I really hope... the old winemakers’ saying proves true... and that we can turn the page, always striving to do better, with the hope next year’s vintage will be more generous.