2024 Troplong Mondot

“It [2024] was complicated,” admitted Aymeric de Gironde, together with Technical Director Rémi Monribot. “There was a lot of work. We had the highest rain ever, then two months without a drop, then more rain in September. For us, the rain in the growing season was annoying and created a lot of mildew pressure, though it’s been like that for the last six years. Spring will always have episodes of rain, and it comes when the vines are in leaf, so you must plan ahead. We’ve increased grass cover between the rows, around 35% of the vineyard. We don’t perceive mildew as a threat, and being located on a hill helps us.”

Aymeric de Gironde continued, “Flowering was fairly slow and uneven, with a bit of coulure and millerandage that created less compact clusters. In summer, we had a nice steady maturation. It was challenging but not impossible. In April, we anticipated picking from September 4, but we ended up picking from September 20. Harvest lasted three weeks. The choice was between quantity and maturity. We chose the latter, so we cropped at 35 hl/ha and made huge selections as we went along. This was a vintage for those with the means to wait and potentially lose some production. Troplong Mondot has a natural density of wine from the parcels in the heart of the vineyards that means we do well in cooler vintages. We didn’t have to extract too hard, as the density was naturally present.”