2024’s most important wine region had its lowest harvest since 1991, but vineyard owners and winemakers aren’t exactly crying.
Wine professionals say the low harvest and therefore reduced supply of Bordeaux wines will not only lead to rising prices, but also gives them an opportunity to sell off the remaining wine from several years of overproduction.
Overall, Bordeaux wines produced last year totaled 3.3 million hectolitres—that’s about 87 million gallons—a drop of about 14%. A number of factors went into the reduced crop, including a government-subsidized reduction in acreage harvested, from 103,000 hectares to 95,000. That reduction was intended to prevent more overproduction.
Other factors that helped the drop along included episodes of frost and high spring rainfall that favors the spread of diseases and mildew.
Looking ahead, though, there may be other clouds on the horizon. The U.S. is the region’s top export market, worth €340 million last year. With the possibility of tariff wars with the U.S., Bordeaux’s wines could become a hostage to politics.
Image by Rick Baldwin from Pixabay
