2024 L'Eglise-Clinet

“It was a tough game with a great score,” Noëmie Durantou told me, offering perhaps the most eloquent summation of the 2024 vintage during my entire trip. “It was a year when the opponents were more difficult, but the players were more trained. I felt more trained for 2024. It’s like a boxer… You don’t count the bruises on the face, but you think of the beautiful fight. I remember it this way.” At this point, I wonder whether she should quit the day job and become a poet…

“We had frost around primeur, a hail storm in Lalande-de-Pomerol, though we were lucky to be away from the heart of the storm. I don’t think the summer made the vintage—it was quite gloomy, with thick clouds that prevented the sunlight. By August 11, the Cabernet Franc had not started ripening. Véraison was so long. The first two weeks in September were critical when there was sun. It was a slow growth cycle, and when the clays are saturated, it risks root asphyxia. We had to harvest very quickly as the rain returned and it was still warm. When we began the analytics, I began to compare the numbers with 2021, but in that year, the malic acids were higher and the anthocyanin levels were not as good. We did a lot of sorting in the vineyard, cutting off bunches, examining each one by shaking it and only then putting it in the basket. I don’t like using a densimetric sorter. I would rather have them sorting out in the vineyard. We did a four to six-day skin-to-cap maceration rather than eight to ten. The colour actually came easily. This year, the vins de presse were more difficult to work with. Thinking of the long term, I still believe in new oak as it gives the wine brightness and freshness.”