CRITICS’ CORNER | Burgundy 2024 – the verdict

22 January 2026

The wines have been tasted, the verdicts are in – so what are commentators saying about Burgundy 2024? The critics, as one might imagine, have a slightly different take to that of merchants…

Ahead of this year’s Burgundy En Primeur tastings in London, merchants were at pains to tell us how tough the vintage had been for growers. To be fair, they weren’t exaggerating. The region as a whole suffered 50% more rainfall than usual between June and August in 2024, and nearly double the average across the 12 months from the previous October. ‘In Burgundy, six days of dry and one day of rain is perfect,’ said Grégory Gouges of the family domaine. ‘In 2024, we had the reverse.’

Warmth alongside the wet further raised the risk of mildew – ‘the defining challenge of the vintage’, as David Porter of Lea & Sandeman said, with Pinot Noir especially affected, particularly in the more rarefied Côte de Nuits. Flowering in cool, damp conditions immediately reduced potential yields; this on top of the frost and hail that beseiged Chablis. It was, said Jérôme Flous, technical director of Faiveley, the most challenging vintage in his 17 years at the domaine. 

Some of the critics also found pleasure – up to a point. Neal Martin of Vinous delighted in ‘wines that resolutely reside in the red side of the fruit spectrum, where Pinot Noir reaches its apogee. Strawberry, cranberry, redcurrants, pomegranate and red cherries…how often did I type those aromas and flavours?’ Jasper Morris MW took a similar stance on insideburgundy.com. ‘If you like dark-coloured, powerful wines, full of fruit, and are comfortable about 14% alcohol levels or above, then there is nothing here for you. If you prefer lighter, perfumed wines then there certainly should be!’

It was left to Sarah Marsh MW to be perhaps the most candid, in World of Fine Wine. ‘The producers and their importers are working hard to promote this lean vintage as elegant,’ she observed. ‘Don’t be hoodwinked. The facts remain – the wines are low in matter and intensity and have limited ageing potential.’ The reds, she said, were the most inconsistent. 2024 Côte de Beaune represented a ‘pleasant, mid-range vintage for early drinking’ by way of wines that were ‘forward and fruity, clean and well-balanced’. The more vaunted Côte de Nuits, by contrast, was ‘a notch below in quality and consistency [with] even some good names resting on their laurels’. Here there were ‘too many decidedly average wines,’ Marsh lamented, ultimately rating the vintage as ‘below average’ for reds; ‘a poorer vintage for this day and age, and certainly in the context of the past decade’. All in all, her advice to those thinking of dabbling in 2024 reds En Primeur, was to ‘be prudent – and don’t pay high prices.’ Matthew Hayes on jancisrobinson.com was more definitive still, urging consumers to ‘do their damnedest to pick up all that is left and affordable from 2022 and 2023, [which] will last longer and ultimately be better wines’.

The whites, on the other hand, are a different story. ‘They’re good, indeed very good,’ Marsh says. ‘[They] have so many virtues. Excellent terroir expression… freshness and vibrancy… an exciting combo of citrus fruits and salty minerality… wines I can drink, not just taste. The straight, zesty style is such an appealing contrast to the solar richness, glycerol and tropical-fruit generosity of recent hot vintages.’ She tempered this, though, by making allowances for other palates. ‘I have to be careful not to overstate the quality. They are good. Very good. But not everybody’s cup of tea. Not for those who favour a rich style of white Burgundy.’ 

Veteran UK commentator Oz Clarke is seemingly not part of that camp, and, speaking to 67 Pall Mall, lauded the ‘freshness and focus’ of the whites in what is ‘a seafood-and-Chablis vintage’ (albeit with yields in Chablis between a third and a half of the norm). ‘If you can’t afford Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise is crying out for your attention,’ he said, ‘and there’s no problem with climate change this year in the Mâconnais,’ picking out Saint Veran as a star appellation: ‘It’s not the Côte de Beaune, but there’s some very classy wines there, with great value and consistency.’ 

Catherine Jaën MW, buying director of Lay & Wheeler, went so far as to label 2024 ‘the best vintage for Chardonnay in the past decade’, heralding the whites as ‘gorgeous – linear and elegant, with a beautifully light-footed complexity’. They should drink well from youth, she added, ‘and I’ve no doubt they will age with grace’. J&B’s Campbell agreed, arguing that the 2024 whites merit a place alongside standout years such as 2014 and 2020, with ‘several examples of genuine brilliance’. 

Charles Curtis MW offered a more tempered perspective on decanter.com, describing the vintage as ‘catastrophically small’ but with ‘bright spots that shine through – particularly among the whites [which have] firm acidity, wonderful balance and moderate alcohol’. There was no denying, though, that it was generally ‘a modest vintage for red wine, which could be light, thin and lacking concentration and fruit’. Curtis agreed with Marsh that the Côte de Beaune fared better than the Côte de Nuits, arguing that the further south one ventures, the better the wines become. He was also aligned with Clarke in deeming 2024 ‘a vintage where the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais really came into their own,’ with the latter ‘among the brightest spots’ of the whole vintage.

Perhaps the most succinct summary came from Matthew Jukes, who was his usual direct self. ‘While village-level whites from the best estates looked great, premiers and grands crus are rarely worth trading up for, given that a larger initial burst of flavour in no way made up for a shorter, stubbier finish,’ he wrote on his website. The reds are nicely perfumed, he added, ‘but on the palate, they are invariably underpowered, reedy and lean’. Ultimately, says Jukes, 2024 is ‘a small vintage of quite expensive wines that will drink early and offer occasional accuracy and charm’. And then the killer line: ‘Honest winemakers will tell you they only came over to London so they could catch up with their regular customers, show face and do some shopping.’ 

For an accompanying piece chronicling the market for Burgundy 2024, see here

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