Winter 2024 was not a very cold one and unfortunately without snow. This lead to the budding of the vines started earlier than in previous years. Some rain in Spring helped face the early summer months.
We were very careful during the flowering in June, remembering how devastating it was in 2023 and fearing to find any spore of mildew. But
the weather helped us in this sense, with a dry June and July followed by rains in August that led our plants to reach a good ripening.
The harvest started on September 14th with the red grapes: a week earlier than in previous years. We started from the lowest vines, continuing in elevation. It was the hottest harvest we've ever had, reaching up to 30 Celsius and leading to the driest harvest we have seen in all my years on Etna. The ripening was very similar between one vineyard to another:
we harvested the grapes in Nave, our highest vineyard on October 4th, 15 days earlier than usual, finishing the harvest in just 20 days.
We can be satisfied with the production this year, with intense, deep reds. By incorporating a new vineyard planted in 2021, the Versante Nord Bianco will have a lower percentage of Minnella and more Carricante. We think that this will help bring more acidity to the wine.
In 2024, we were able to produce the totality of our cuvées, unlike in 2023 where we only producerd Versante Nord Rosso and the two whites .
Year after year the vine's growing cycle is getting shorter due to high summer temperatures (reaching up to 115°F) and low rainfall (about 150 mm/year). Our vineyards are not irrigated but I think irrigation will become necessary if things continue this way! Strangely enough, the younger vineyards have coped better with the stress than the older ones, and I think this made me realize that within a farm there should always be a balance between young, mid-life and old vines!
It is inexplicable that the Catarratto produced more than 2023, while the nero d'avola was down about 30 percent. The wines always have a certain freshness, and I really don't understand where it comes from this year, as they are slightly higher in alcohol.
The 2024 season began with a cold and rainy spring, similar to the 2023 vintage, but with fewer problems due to downy mildew than the previous year. The vegetation grew very quickly in the months of May and June, requiring a lot of manual work in the vineyard to arrange the shoots and a total of 11 treatments with copper, sulfur, zeolite, infusions and/or decoctions of horsetail and nettle, which ended around mid-July.
By the end of June, the climate changed drastically, with scorching temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees and no rain until early September. This lead the plants to a state of suffering, first from excessive heat with obvious leaf burns and then (in August) due to drought. The rains returned on Septmember 8th, outlining the moments of the harvest and slowed down the ripening which seemed to proceed too quickly.
The grape yields per hectare were balanced (5000-7000 kg per hectare) and we managed to harvest the grapes at the right ripeness without having too high a sugar level. The harvest began on August 28 and ended on October 2 with a total of about 34,000 kg of grapes harvested.
The grapes were very different depending on the exposure and soil, so a lot of monitoring and tasting was done to evaluate the right degree of ripeness. Some fermentations went quickly and others went very slowly depending on how much the vines suffered. In November, in the vineyards where the vines suffered the most from drought, in addition to the usual green manure we distributed earthworm humus to increase the water retention capacity of the soil. The fermentations proved to be a perfect indicator of the degree of stress of the vines.
As always we had fun destemming by hand and pressing with our feet: 8000 Kg of Sangiovese, Barbera and Canaiolo nero.
The wines seem to have excellent aromas and a beautiful energy...we will observe their evolution over the months in the different containers (cement, stainless steel, fiberglass, wood and terracotta amphorae) always with the amazed and caring eyes of a parent full of love who lets their children express themselves freely with joy!
The 2024 vintage was characterized by a severe drought that lasted nine months: no rain from January until the very end of September. This stressed the vines a lot, with very limited canopy growth and very little production (60% less than the 2023 vintage): in some plots close to the sea we didn't even harvest. The later-ripening areas of the island were saved (valleys and plots above 250 m above sea level), maintaining a good state of health thanks to the night-time humidity and lower daytime evaporation. In the lands most affected by the drought, the real problem will be winter pruning, as the shoots are very thin and it is difficult to find the buds for annual renewal: this could compromise production for next year.
The September rains allowed an excellent ripening of the second-growth fruit of Zibibbo (racemes) with which we make Ghirbì. The racemes have maintained a very good acidity despite climate trends. Too bad about the really small harvest: it will allow us to make only 250 bottles of ancestral sparkling wine.
The analyses of the new wines offer reflective inspiration: despite a pH around 4 and low acidity, the wines, although young, enjoy a beautiful freshness and a certain length, helped by the extract (the volcanic soil rich in potassium) and by the glycerol that develops in conditions of stress. A more Mediterranean way of thinking about winemaking, breaking away from prepackaged schemes that want white wines to be drinkable only if they have high acidity and low alcohol content.
This year some labels will be missing: Kaffefi (Catarratto grapes), Nivuro Nostrale (Pignatello grapes), Passulata (Zibibbo from early-ripening zones near the sea) and the four “single vineyards”. The few grapes available were used for Firri Firri and Terra Forte and the bottles available will be few. However, there will be some confidential experiments, which I deem very important to know more and more the many facets of our territory:
- Kharci (in dialect it means unpruned vine), made from grapes coming from a very old vineyard at 350 meters above sea level that was not pruned (but that from this year we will recover) because the owner passed away and no one wanted to take care of it anymore.
- Ghirbì MC– a metodo classico sparkling made with Zibibbo racemes: we will use a special cap that allows us to exclude the yeasts of the tirage without doing a disgorgement. I worked on the design of this cap during my university thesis and it has finally been made! We will be the first to use it.
This difficult year invites us to reflect. In extreme territories like the one we live in, we must study and deepen our long winemaking tradition: to not remain anchored to the past, but using it as a springboard to jump higher. We are helped by the ancient island cultivation techniques such as making a basin for each plant, weeding the weeds several times a year to conserve even the smallest drop of water and, above all, improving the structure of the soil by increasing the available organic substance to allow the plants to react in the best way to increasingly exaggerated climatic conditions.
The good news is that this year we will come out with the four single vineyards for the 2023 vintage after a full year of rest in the cellar. They will have a new look and we will try to explain as best as possible the differences that such a small island can bring to your glass using a single grape variety - Zibibbo - but coming from different altitudes, exposures and soils.
"Incontestable Elegance" for Domaine Girard in 2023
Another hot year! Another dry year! Another precocious year! That's five of the last six. But if you take a closer look, these hot and dry years all have their own particularities. The periods of heat are not the same, nor do they have the same intensity. And the rains land in different periods. So of course the vines react and act differently, which affects their ripening. In the end, it also impacts the final wines. Let's break down each stage of the :
1- A Cold and Humid Winter that Ended Early
Between the end of the 2022 into February 2023, winter was, generally speaking, both humid and glacial. But as early as February, temperatures became more clement, announcing an early spring. From then on, the temperatures remained appropriate and balanced for their season, provoking in mid-April, which tracks as normal timing in the last decade.
2- A Rapid and Complicated Start to the Vegetive Cycle
At the the end of April, the weather became more capricious; temperatures began to rise and rain started to fall persistently, creating a rise in pressure. Our margin of error was slim to none, as this pressure coincided with the time we usually work the soils, making for complex work.
The beginnings of euphoria began at , which went off without a hitch. The foliage, robust and having survived the trying 2022 season, clearly had strong reserves, and the proved to be abundant. The end of May and beginning of June were rather mild, providing a much needed reprise from the pressures of fungal illness.
3- A Rainy End of the Cycle
Around the 10th of June, the rain and pressure was back right as we were observing the impressive growth of our grapes. Still, the state of the vineyards remained more than satisfactory, with solid potential , particularly remarkable on the . Despite the work done with of the branches in the spring, it was necessary to . The took place in mid-July.
4-Slow but Perfect Maturation
Despite the continued rain and the added complexity this incurred to our work, the vines remained impeccable during the phase of and throughout the ; in fact we were able to pick everything at optimal . A heatwave in mid-September forced us to start earlier than expected, notably on the but also helped boost in the grapes. We began on September 15th. In the end, our tireless efforts were rewarded! The were plentiful and full of juice, both for the and .
5- The First Impressions of the Vintage
The quality of the grapes have given wines with exquisitely pure aromas. For the of the whites, the sugar levels are less elevated than in past years, creating better better conditions. The quality of the wines is incontestably manifested as they begin their ; they are showing balance and harmony.
For the reds, thanks to a meticulous of the grapes, we were able to find a very delicate with fairly quick . The wines are fruit forward but with a remarkable structure.
The 2023 season is not a perfect one: the weather constantly alternated between rain and sun, so we needed to a lot this year. Moreover, a in July didn’t help. The ,, and (already ) were in some parts more dry (because of ), but in the end the crop was better than we expected. But we still have to collect all the reds and the , or rather what we can of the : it was the most damaged by and we lost a good part of the crop.
The first pictures show the the "Sivi" process (100% – 7/10 days on the skins), then the Slatnik (80% , 20% – 7/10 days on the skins) – note Ivana doing the and the skins after the and the press. In the meantime we started to collect the grapes for the Oslavje ( and , half and half). Some panoramas and at the end Ivana and Saša preparing the new for the season.
was good. Long and healthy. No broken things this year. We managed to get our production in 40 000 bottles. Now it just needs to be sold. And we're good :)
2023 was a great year. In Portugal, the winter 22/23 was very cold, and historically very wet and rainy. Healthy soils got good reserves and the vines produced great. Some of the we source saw 30 to 60% production rises. Spring was warm and soft. No massive heat waves and no rains or fogs in the dangerous times. Mild sugar levels with good ripening and satisfying 's and . Overall it's looking great.
Our celebrates 25 years of activity this year. And we would really have liked to dedicate this to all these years of work and sacrifice, but also to lots of satisfaction!
The beginning of spring was good, the vines started their vegetive cycle well and after , the were plentiful, beautiful and well distributed. Then, it arrived with an unprecedented power, the Unexpected: first a flood and then the Landslides. First on May 2nd, then a second, the most devastating, on May 16th and 17th... Everything turned into a river we witnessed an unprecedentedly violent landslide ... it was like nothing we'd ever seen before.
About 30-35% of the vineyards disappeared in the landslides. But for those that remained, it was absolutely impossible to go to the vineyard with a tractor or anything else. In the following weeks we tried to intervene manually with to 'save' what remained. But unfortunately, despite all our efforts, 'She' won... . "She' had dried 50-55% of the remaining . At this point, approximately 10% of the total production remains.
And when we think we're at our lowest... on July 13th we were hit by a whirlwind of . And there is nothing left... not even a of grapes to pick.
Being in the worst situation a winemaker can find himself in, I tried and wanted to "see" an opportunity! Just 1.5km from us, on the other side of the hill towards the micro-fraction of Zattaglia where there was no damage, a young farmer who has vineyards of , and (and obviously does not intervene on the vineyard!), gave us the possibility of selecting grapes and to harvest what encouraged us to 'save' a . An opportunity and experimentation that will certainly help us understand the territory and all of its nuances!
In the meantime, in these long months, we have continued the work to restore the road that leads to the house and everything that surrounds the vineyards. You, even without knowing it, have helped us a lot and we will always be grateful for this! There is still a lot to do in the vineyards and unfortunately not everything will be recoverable. But we hold on and remain confident.
2013 was marked by six months of rain, forcing us to keep the heat on in the house until June. Even with a return to nice weather in July and August, we faced a lot of pressure with a challenging , especially for the (the was fine). The are very small, with little juice. A very hard year with tiny .
We started on October 7th with the , followed by the and finishing with the . We finished on October 12th and 11:30 am. A very quick with very few grapes.
However, I must highlight the importance of our harvest team, who were a pure joy. They were invested in their work, especially for the quality of the sorting. They actively participate in each through their good mood and sympathy. I thank all of them!
