Harvest 2024: The Report of a New Vintage!

The late October harvest of Sauvignon Blanc grapes affected by noble rot and destined for Maximo marks the close of the 2024 harvest.

Let's review the climatic and harvesting trends of this year:

Report by our Head Agronomist, Luigi Piersanti.

The 2024 vintage ranks as the hottest of the century to date. After a mild and dry winter, we experienced a warm spring with sparse rainfall from March through to mid-April. This was followed by an unexpectedly colder phase that persisted until the end of May.

The summer brought significantly high temperatures, although rainfall—fortunately well-distributed throughout the season—was minimal, particularly along the coastal regions.

September saw a few rainy spells, yet we were able to proceed with the harvest according to schedule. The growing season began unusually early, with the first buds visible in early April. Consequently, flowering was also advanced but was slightly hindered by the lower temperatures in late April and early May, leading to fairly widespread blossom drop.

Following a very hot summer, we began harvesting in record time, starting with the Chardonnay base for sparkling wines in early August. We completed the harvest of Verdicchio in mid-September, while the Montepulciano grapes, both in Conero and Abruzzo, were harvested by the end of the first week of October.

The specific humidity and temperature conditions at the end of September encouraged the development of noble rot on the Sauvignon Blanc for our Maximo, allowing us to harvest it by mid-October.

We encountered no significant phytosanitary challenges but focused considerable care on managing techniques to minimise heat and drought damage. Key among these were precise soil management and green pruning practices, which proved essential in a year like this.

This year, as always, we paid close attention to determining the right time to harvest, aiming to achieve the best possible balance of ripeness, elegance, and freshness. This goal required mobilising over a hundred people each day to complete the harvest swiftly for grapes deemed ready.

While it's still early to give a definitive qualitative assessment of the vintage, we expect excellent wines. Quantitatively, however, it was a relatively low-yield harvest. In Abruzzo, yields were down by 50% from the historical average, while in the Marche region, the reduction was around 25-30%.