‘A Vintage to Cherish’: Chablis 2024 Comes on Strong

The 2023 and 2024 vintages of Chablis tell two very different, almost opposite stories. While 2023 brought generous yields and wines marked by suppleness and easy charm, 2024 was defined by extreme adversity that decimated production – yet it delivered wines of striking tension, crystalline minerality and laser-sharp acidity. For the diehard fans of Chablis’ classic austerity, the best 2024s offer a vintage to cherish, even though availability is scarce.

Benoît Droin, the 15th-generation winemaker at Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, perfectly captured the mood during a tasting of his 2024s. “Since yields are so low and everyone assumes it’s a bad vintage, maybe the true Chablis lovers should keep these bottles for themselves,” he said, only half-jokingly. His family’s 26-hectare domaine includes nine premier crus and five grand crus, and Droin estimated that the 2024 crop was down about 70 percent compared with the previous year.

At William Fèvre, Didier Seguier, the technical director, said 2024 was even worse for producers working organic or biodynamically. “We were 90 percent down and produced almost nothing,” he recalled.

The vintage was marked by a “trilogy of disasters,” Seguier said: three hailstorms, a damaging spring frost in late March and early April, and persistent rain throughout the growing season, which fueled severe mildew outbreaks. For organic producers who can’t rely on chemical treatments, the hardships were especially brutal – Thomas Picos of the biodynamically-run Domaine Pattes Loup reported yields down 85 to 90 percent, with some parcels producing a mere 10 hectoliters per hectare.

The Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) confirmed the challenging conditions, recording rainfall that was 50 percent above average from January to August in Chablis. March was almost three times wetter than usual, leading to flooding of the nearby Serein River. May and June also saw twice the normal rainfall. Such conditions spelled disaster for mildew-prone vineyards, and the impact was severe for organic estates.

Despite these trials, Domaine Christian Moreau Pere et Fils, another organic producer, found surprising quality in their limited 2024 harvest and even greater hope in 2025. Fabien Moreau, who heads the family-run estate, recalled how hailstorms destroyed 80 percent of their grand cru parcels. Rain and mildew attacks forced them to spray 20 times that year – twice the usual number for an organic estate – yet the vineyard recovered well in 2025, when sprays dropped back to six.

In 2024, they produced just 4,000 grand cru bottles, a dramatic decline from 35,000 in 2023.

At William Fevre, many grand cru plots yielded just five to six hectoliters per hectare in 2024, leading Seguier to label it one of the toughest vintages in at least 50 years. With yields so dramatically reduced, producers faced not only logistical challenges but also the hard choice of how to manage and price a very limited resource.

On the flip side, 2023 was a year of abundance, but not without complications. Seguier recounted a difficult first half with frost, rain, and mildew pressure, followed by a cooler spell. Then, a sudden hot, dry period in early September accelerated ripening and hastened harvest, which began on Sept. 7 and was completed in just over a week – with over 160 pickers rushing to get the grapes in before acidity dropped too low.

But the downside of many 2023s may be that they are too approachably fruity, overly round and forward for the Chablis style. “After all, it is important to remember that we are making Kimmeridgian wines – not just any chardonnay,” Seguier reminded me.

This is why I preferred the taut, mineral-driven 2024s to the lush, open 2023s as I tasted my way through 11 producers – and 127 bottles in total – over four days of visits.

The risk in 2023 – and what some producers warned about – was that high yields and lower acidity could produce wines that feel diluted or lack the characteristic sharpness. It was not uncommon for winemakers to make acid corrections to salvage freshness.

That said, high yield does not automatically mean dilution. Domaine Jean Dauvissat Père et Fils’ Chablis Les Tierces 2023, for example, proudly states on its label a yield of 72 hectoliters per hectare – the maximum allowed that year by the government-run French National Institute of Origin and Quality, whereas the typical limit is 60. Remarkably, this wine was impressively balanced, with enough substance and tension to uphold the Chablis hallmark even at such volume.

Melanie Stiee of Vincent Dauvissat offered an insightful observation on vintage styles and bottle aging: intriguingly, warmer, richer vintages (like 2023) often need more time in bottle to reveal their true character, while cooler, rainier years (such as 2024, and similarly 2003) may be more approachable earlier. She believes that 2024, when the estate produced just four cuvées (versus the usual eight), could evolve magnificently over five to 10 years – much like the much-praised 2017, which is now revealing its classical finesse.

Many producers and observers have drawn parallels between the 2024 vintage and iconic years like 2017 and 2014, which produced more mineral-driven wines in their youth.

Patrick Piuze, a Quebecois negociant with a strong presence in Chablis since 2008, put it succinctly: “For the real lovers of Chablis, 2024 could be iconic, like the classic 2014. 2023 is more welcoming and easier to understand,”

Piuze owns no vineyards but produces excellent wines with purchased grapes in Chablis – thanks to his solid sourcing of fruit and controlled harvests.

"I harvest early and I don’t really care about alcohol level,” he said. His wines from 2024 exemplify the cerebral side of the vintage, with mineral austerity, linear tension, precision and crystalline acidity.

READ MORE ‘A GREAT VINTAGE FOR GREAT TERROIR’: BORDEAUX 2025 LOOKS FOR ITS SWEET SPOT

Samuel Billaud, who made some of the most fascinating wines featured in this report, such as the Samuel Billaud Chablis 1er Cru Séchet Vieiles Vignes 2024 and Samuel Billaud Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir 2024, compared the 2024 to the more classic, salty and typical 2014.

With average yields below 10 hectoliter per hectare (as low as five hectoliters per hectare for Les Clos Grand Cru and 15 hectoliters for the premier cru Vaillon) in 2024, Billaud described 2024 as a year of concentrated acidity and salivating minerality, possibly surpassing even 2014 in purity and intensity.

Both of his top wines showcase a muscular salinity, tautness, and density. Notably, 2024 was the first vintage that Billaud aged the Séchet exclusively in wine-globes, a traditional large oak vessel, a practice he plans to expand by 2026. His Petit Chablis Sur Les Clos 2024, from a parcel planted in 1976 above Les Clos Grand Cru, was the best Petit Chablis I sampled – outshining many higher-tier wines.

Billaud added that 2023 would need more time to let freshness and minerality come through. “It is sunnier and more open, with less acidity,” he said of 2023. “At first, it will be fruity and floral, but the mineral aspect may appear later.”

His wines should be considered on par in quality with two leading Chablis producers, Francois Raveneau and Vincent Dauvissat, but his style is a little more precise and modern and his prices attractive and affordable.

Yet it would be misleading to call all of 2024 uniformly concentrated. Persistent rain and the need for chaptalization complicate the narrative. In cuvees where sorting was limited, yields could be higher, at times considerably above the single-digit hectoliter figures typical of grand crus.

Moreau, of Domaine Christian Moreau Pere et Fils, struck a note of caution: “Given everything, I don’t think we can broadly say 2024 is a concentrated vintage.” In his view, 2023 and 2024 are two sides of the same coin – one with volume and a more approachable style, the other with scarcity and classical austerity.

This duality raises questions about how wineries will market and price the rare 2024 wines amid current economic uncertainties. Many producers have pledged not to raise prices despite scarcity, and some plan to continue selling leftover 2023 stock alongside the new vintage.

One thing is clear: neither Burgundy nor Chablis will have enough 2024 to meet demand. But the bright side is that Chablis wines still remain relatively affordable compared with many whites from the Cote de Beaune. Even top examples cost a fraction of grand Montrachet bottles.

Chablis remains a less hyped but genuinely intriguing appellation for consumers and trade alike. And in the small town of Chablis, the authentic experience endures: tastings and vineyard visits where wine lovers can enjoy serious Burgundy without feeling like they’ve arrived too late to join the typically high-priced and showy Burgundy party.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

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