2024 Frank Phélan

“The summer was pretty dry, but cool,” Véronique Dausse tells me on the first day of my Bordeaux marathon. “There was 150 mm more rain during 2024 in the northern weather station than the one to the south. Temperatures were a little bit higher in the north. There was 50% more rainfall in the year: around 1,500 mm of rain at Phélan Ségur. Saint-Estèphe has more clay, so it is better at absorbing the water. In winter, there was 1033 mm of rain between October to May compared to an average of 680 mm. So budding was early (March 28) but it took some time, and growth was retarded at the beginning. Flowering was earlier (June 5) but strung out over 10 to 12 days, with heavy rain mixed with hail that affected the Merlot in our central block. We had a nice summer without much rain in August. At the end of August, there was a bit of rain and this delayed véraison. So, we deleafed 70% of the vines in two steps, first on the east side of the vine, then on both sides of the vines, as we knew we had to wait for ripeness.”

Dausse continues, “We started picking the Merlot on September 30 and pushed it to the max, even though we might risk botrytis. We started the Cabernet Sauvignon a week later. In the end, we picked over nine days, the shortest ever, finishing on October 14. We did have a bit of botrytis, but this could be sorted out using optical sorting. For the first time, we used subcontracted pickers, which gave us more flexibility in terms of timing. The vinification was gentler with less extraction, stopping at 1010 density, plus a shorter maceration, as we did not want too much tannin. The average maceration was about 25 days instead of 28 to 30 days. It was the first year that we used 100% of our own yeast. We have 15 different indigenous yeasts spread over the vineyard. We used barrels that tend to give lighter wood tannins, and the élevage may be a little shorter.”