ThoseGeneva wines –Skinny, the 2024 vintage reveals its assets
The winegrowers present the fruit of a very complicated year. But the aromas are there.
On the left bank, here in Anières, the lake made it possible to limit the drop in night temperatures in April. But elsewhere in the canton, some winegrowers have lost up to 100% of the harvest.
Lucien fortunate
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Spring gel followed by a rainy summer: at the vineyard, the 2024 vintage has definitively entered the category of those whose winegrowers will remember. For its hardness, for negative temperatures that destroyed part of the harvest in April, for diseases that have spread in favor of a watered.
Now the wine is in the bottle. And this Thursday, it was a question of introducing it to professionals as well as the public. Of course, the quality turns out to be heterogeneous, just like the quantities produced (some hillsides have suffered a lot when others, on the left bank in particular, experienced a more serene exercise thanks to the proximity of the lake).
But, overall, white wines reveal aromatics having benefited from difficult conditions. The reds are presented under a thinner profile and less colorful than those of the years of sun (2022 and 2023 in particular).
The cold exalts the aromas of this vintage 2024
“We had to pick up when maturity was not optimal,” explains Fabien Tonetto, oenologist from the field of Champvigny, in Satigny, where losses are valued at 40%. But, in return, “the cold climate has strengthened the expression of aromas”. Contrary to popular belief, a solar year will tend to crush them. His Gamay 2024, on the fruit, crunchy, is a very lively illustration of the phenomenon. Especially since this grape comes from old vines, better armed in front of climatic vagaries.
At Clos des Pins, in Dardagny, Marc Ramu draws up the same taste observation: the aromas are there. “For the little that there was,” he smiles despite losses of 30%. Reviving the memory of the dark years – in 1995 in particular, when the hail fell on the day of the open cellars – the winemaker registered in the Memory of Swiss wines Confirms that 2024 was a real obstacle course. “These are the rules of the game. We have to accept them, or change jobs.”
-Consumption at half mast
At the time of these vintage 2024 vintage tastings, the profession has taken a qualitative statement on the qualitative level. But wine professionals did not miss the publication last figures last week on overall consumption in Switzerland: -8% in 2024 compared to the previous year. In this context, Swiss wines are particularly affected with -16%. “We are in an in-between. Between our generation and that of our parents, the tradition of wine has been a little lost, ”notes Jérôme Cruz, from the Beauvent estate, in Bernex.
An economist by training, the winemaker, however, tackles the future on the good side: “Our fundamentals are those who suffer the most when purchasing power drops. But we will come back to these fundamentals, that’s for sure. You have to remember that we have a terroir. “
“Geneva at the table”With Geneva at the table, the “Tribune de Genève” tells you about the culinary life of the canton. Addresses, shops, bottles, trends and dives in Geneva gastronomic history.
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