CIAO BELO - 2024

2024 was the vintage of extremes. It started in February with a very high average maximal temperature for winter season (14.6C). This episode of very mild temperature for this time of the year continued until a short episode of snow on 24th March. Fortunately, it happened just before bud break which took place a few days later, early April during a summery wave with temperature reaching 30 C in Bela Krajina. Even though the second part of April was much cooler and average temperature in May matched the seasonal norm, grapevine phenological development was boosted by the warm period from February to mid of April. Therefore, flowering started as early as mid of May, some time between 15th and 20th of May. This was the first key point to understand 2024 vintage as it means it would be very early vintage for Bela Krajina conditions. Indeed, the timing of berry development and ripening is mostly defined by its flowering date. The second key point of 2024 vintage happened just after flowering with more than 200 mm of rain falling between end of May and end of June. This had two important consequences on vineyard work and future grape quality. First, it was a real challenge to fight against disease pressure, particularly Peronospora and later powdery mildew (oidium). The time around flowering is the most critical period in term of disease management and challenging conditions at that time often leads to difficulties through the whole season. Moreover, these very wet conditions happened at the beginning of berry development which in turn limited tannins synthesis. Therefore, after the challenging wet 2023 vintage, it seems that 2024 started on the same base. But every vintage is different and July and August turned to be one of the warmest and driest recorded in Bela Krajina. Veraison started around 15th July confirming the precocity of the vintage. This also meant that the final stage of grape maturation of many white varieties and early red like Pinot Noir already started mid of August while we were still facing some important heat waves. Therefore, it was very important to be ready to harvest in the last week of August. For some white varieties, postponing harvest for 3 or 4 days meant to go from 13 % potential alcohol to 14.5% potential alcohol. For still wines, harvest had to start around 25/08 and by the end of the first week of September we were done with whites and Pinot Noir. Only Modra Frankinja was left in the vineyard when very wet conditions came back after two months of intense summer. In 10 days we received nearly 150 mm of rain which made the latest stage of Modra Frankinja maturation challenging with rot development in the most advanced plot. Nevertheless, the last plot of Modra Frankinja was picked on 21th September, a record of precocity at Suklje, but with optimal phenolic maturity. Finally, this 2024 was very singular, full of contrasts and extremes and as usual this will be found in the wines, depending on varieties, terroirs and winemakers’ decisions. The whites are generally the characteristic of solar vintages, with in some cases high level of alcohol but not missing freshness. Early reds like pinot noir got impacted by the late heat waves and will be quite opulent, almost like in Grenache style. Level of alcohol will be more moderated for Modra Frankinja on the juicy side, aromatic and elegant and balanced body. Nevertheless the wines will have less weight than 2022, another early and warm vintage. This is the consequence of the heavy rain received in June at a critical stage for tannins development.