Chateauneuf-du-Pape is, in reputation, a Grenache appellation. Its thirteen permitted varieties notwithstanding, the flowering, fruit set and harvest date of Grenache define how a vintage is remembered. Which makes 2024 a fascinating outlier: a year in which Grenache, the king variety, largely failed to show up, and the vintage was saved by the grapes that usually stand in its shadow. It belongs to a recurring recent pattern, seen in years such as 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2018, in which a difficult Grenache season pushed Syrah and Mourvedre to the front of the blends.
A wet spring, a dry summer
Winter opened cold and dry before the pattern flipped, the appellation's own vintage report records. Warm, wet weather followed, buds burst up to ten days ahead of 2023, and spring rainfall reached 250 millimetres, more than double the 110 millimetres of 2023 and five times the 50 millimetres of 2022. All that moisture restored soil reserves but also fed mildew, which hit Grenache at flowering, and coulure then thinned its crop still further. Localised hail in mid-July cut yields again. Late July and early August turned very hot, with only 40 to 80 millimetres of rain, before showers in the first days of September eased the finish; picking then went ahead in fine weather.
The arithmetic was unforgiving. The appellation averaged 24.9 hectolitres per hectare, down 24 percent from 2023. At Domaine de Marcoux, fruit from old vines that would ordinarily have gone into the Vieilles Vignes bottling was redirected into the main cuvee, and the prestige wine was not made at all, a sacrifice the domaine has made in earlier difficult Grenache years.
The appellation's own assessment is that the season's accidents cost volume, not quality. The area escaped the late-April frost that struck elsewhere in the southern Rhone, and its report concludes that mildew, coulure and hail reduced what could be picked without damaging the vintage's potential. In the cellar, the practical consequence is a change of proportions: with less Grenache available, the 2024 reds lean harder on Syrah and Mourvedre, and read darker, spicier and more structured as a result.
The Syrah and Mourvedre vintage
What emerged is a vintage in a darker, cooler register than the solar 2022s or the generous 2023s. Decanter's panel, tasting the 2024s, opened its report on a positive note: the better reds are fresh and vibrant, with good acidity and relatively low alcohol, defined and transparent, speaking clearly of their terroir. Wines scoring 97 and above featured in its main report. Nor was the Grenache failure uniform across the appellation: on the lieux-dits where the variety ripened cleanly it still contributes roundness, with the supporting varieties supplying the spine.
This is a vintage with a natural audience. Drinkers who look for the appellation's lower-alcohol, darker-fruited and more earth-driven side will find it in 2024, as they did in 2018, 2014, 2013 and 2011. The richer, fleshier style belongs to 2023, 2021, 2019, 2016 and the other Grenache years. It is a useful sorting of a decade, and a reminder that the appellation's blending tradition is not decoration: in a year like 2024, it is the whole point.
Verdict: a vintage for the patient
No one is calling 2024 a blockbuster, and that is precisely its appeal. The wines ask for cellaring rather than applause, and they reward drinkers who value definition over density. After three warm vintages in which Grenache called every tune, 2024 restores a kind of balance to the Southern Rhone's recent history: proof that when the king variety stumbles, the court can still carry the vintage.
