BRUNELLO HARVEST 2024, A MASTERPIECE
PLENTIFUL WONDERFUL GRAPES WITH OLD STYLE RIPENING WHICH, THANKS TO THE WEATHER FORECAST AND HARVEST TECHNOLOGY, ARRIVED IN THE CELLAR IN PERFECT CONDITIONS
Brunello-Montalcino-harvest-2024-casato-prime-donne
For the first time, in many years, the ripening of the grapes was what winemakers dream of: the ripening of the pulp of the grapes (technological) and that of the skins (polyphenolic) occurred simultaneously and completely.
Average 13% alcohol, lignified seeds, small berries and bunches, good content of noble substances, acidity and PH just below perfection… And lots of grapes.
At the beginning of September no one was hoping for such a spectacular result, in fact everyone was pessimistic because the weather forecast was terrible.
CHRONICLE OF THE 2024 HARVEST: FROM PESSIMISM TO JOY
After 60 days of scorching temperatures in July and August, with temperatures of 37°C during the day and 22 at night, the vines are still. Veraison is slow and ripening does not seem to progress. Then the weather changes suddenly and a very rainy month begins: from early September to early October, around 200 mm of rain falls. It’s cold and at night the thermometer drops to 10°C.
Managing a climate of this kind is very difficult: you need a team of very good agronomists, grape growers and oenologists, excellent harvesting technology and a pinch of luck. We have all this and in fact we produce an amazing harvest.
We are lucky to have the vineyards full of small bunches, open with small grapes with thick and hard skins and therefore capable of resisting the rain.
harvest-2024-orciadoc-kids-pick-grapes- Fattoria-del-Colle
The first winning move is to unload the vines from excess grapes: from 29 August to 18 September we harvest the bunches by hand and then vinify the best sparkling wine base ever produced. At the same time, the vines are stripped and subjected to a biological treatment with anti-botrytic “mould-eating” products. This is the second winning move.
The third is to create a harvest calendar capable of combining the ripening of the grapes with climatic disturbances. On September 18th we decide to harvest the Sangiovese grapes from the most ready vineyards of the Fattoria del Colle and allocate them to the Chianti Superiore wine. This allows us to concentrate all our attention and organizational effort on the Brunello vineyards.
Meanwhile, the two most fearful disturbances express their destructive force on Romagna and Bolgheri. It rains here but it doesn’t pour.
On September 23rd -25th , the consultant oenologist Valérie Lavigne arrives, visits all the vineyards, tastes the grapes and approves the harvest plan.
THE 2024 HARVEST IN MONTALCINO
The grapes for Brunello are ready but the first window between disturbances is only 5 days. From Saturday September 28th to October 2nd the harvest by hand and by machine takes place simultaneously, bringing all the Brunello grapes into the cellar.
On October 3rd, 81 millimetres of rain fell and under the storm my heroic grape growers dismantled the grape selection machine with optical reader at Casato Prime Donne and reassembled it at Fattoria del Colle.
Then a new race against time, in view of the next disturbance. Between Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October the manual and mechanical harvest brings the grapes for the Orcia Doc wine (Sangiovese and Foglia Tonda) to the cellar and we also manage to do two small tests with whole bunches and natural yeasts. We see the first signs of botrytis on grapes.
It’s cold in the morning, the thermometer reads 6°C. The cooling of the vats practically does not work and in fact we are ready to heat the must.
sangiovese-harvest-2024-donatella-cinellicolombini-teaches-Lorenzo-to-taste-grapes
On Monday October 7th the harvest ends in Montalcino with the last Sangiovese vineyard saving it from the disturbance expected for the following day. Finally, all the grapes are in the cellar.
The fermentations are regular and the macerations, with closed cap, which follow the alcoholic fermentation, have been shortened compared to previous years.
WHAT BRUNELLO 2024 WILL BE LIKE
The 2024 vintage will be a long-lived, elegant, fine Brunello with moderate alcohol. The colour is rather pale but the acid component is well expressed. It will be an “old style” Brunello with the ideal characteristics to please new wine lovers.
Searching the past for a similar vintage we can find it in 1997.
We will remember 2024 as the year without spring and autumn. In spring there was a sunny week, during Vinitaly, in mid-April, but then the rain was constant even though temperatures never dropped much, neither in winter nor in spring.
Therefore we will also remember the 2024 harvest as the most abundant in our estate history with over 220 tons of wonderful grapes. A big thank you to our agronomist Gabriele Gadenz and to our grape growers led by Efisio Luche and Davide Rinaldi because they created a masterpiece.