Fewer clusters, but promising! The wine station in the canton of Neuchâtel has delivered the first trends for the 2024 harvest. According to the figures already collected, we are heading towards “a short year”, according to Rémy Alain Reymond, director of the wine station. Clearly, the total annual production of the approximately 600 hectares of Neuchâtel vines should just exceed 3,000 tonnes. A result far from the 4,500 tonnes of grapes harvested last year, and 20% lower than the average of the last ten years. To explain this lack of berries, Rémy Alain Reymond mentions the summer bad weather and the precipitation during the weeks preceding the harvest.
More “edgy” wines
In the absence of a record season in terms of quantity, the director of the wine station wants to be reassuring regarding the quality of the 2024 vintage. “After two scorching vintages in 2022 and 2023, which produced rich and opulent wines, we will find fresher and more sophisticated wines,” promises Rémy Alain Reymond. “It is precisely these variations that give all the charm to the canton’s production,” he adds.
A checkered future
More broadly, the 2024 harvest is part of a downward trend in grape production in the canton of Neuchâtel. Over the last 30 years, the total quantity of berries harvested per year amounts to 4,103 tonnes. A figure which drops to 3,789, then 3,732 tonnes, respectively over the last 20 and 10 years. A downward trend which should however not be confirmed in the long term, according to Rémy Alain Reymond. On the other hand, he explains that we will have to face increasingly significant variations between scorching summers on one side and episodes of frost and hail on the other.
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