Winemakers across Oregon are reporting good tidings about the 2024 wine grape harvest.
“Overall, 2024 was a dream harvest!” says Blair Trathen, director of winemaking at Abbey Road Farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley AVA (American Viticultural Area).
Thanks to a long, warm growing season free of any major inclement weather events — no smoke from wildfire, fruit-freezing frost or biblical deluge of rain — and culminating with blue skies and sunny days just when the grapes were ready to pick, harvest went about as smoothly and stress-free as could be.
Abbey Road Farm | Yamhill-Carlton AVA
Abbey Road’s Director of Winemaking Blair Trathen hails originally from New Zealand, where the wine harvest came up short in 2024 due to an extremely dry growing season, with rainfall levels less than half of the long-term average. Rainfall in Oregon, by comparison, was 110% above normal in 2024, with an average temperature of 49.1°F – a warm year by Oregon standards. Trathen’s first harvest in Oregon’s Willamette Valley was in 2001.
Sip: What can people expect from your 2024 vintage, and why?
Blair Trathen: This is essentially the third harvest from the Abbey Road Farm estate vineyard, where we have 16 varieties planted which get turned into around 34 individual wine SKUs, so juggling picks and making multiple wines runs a lot smoother when Mother Nature cooperates.
Sip: In general, was there anything special, notable or different about the 2024 harvest compared to past harvests — in terms of the weather, harvest crew, supply chain, your customer base, etc.?
BT: Wine quality across the board from our early picks for Methode Traditionelle wines through to our “last to ripen” varieties of Mencia, Mondeuse and Cabernet Franc was very high. This setup was achieved through a coolish spring with good soil moisture levels followed by an overall warm growing season with some heat spikes in July/August which we were prepared for and escaped with minimal sun burn damage. A mid-August rain event freshened up the canopy and gave the plants a drink to prepare them for a long dry end of summer and fall with moderate temperatures.
Sip: What was the best/highest point of the harvest? Were there any low/bad times? Was there a special event or occasion that made this past harvest particularly memorable?
BT: Our first pick was September 4 for sparkling base wine and we finished up harvest on October 10 with our estate Mencia, Cabernet Franc and Mondeuse. It was almost a “hurry up and wait” type harvest. With very little to zero disease pressure and ripening slowing down as the end of August and September cooled off flavors, we were able to develop at a subdued pace. This enabled fruit to be harvested at full ripeness whilst retaining wonderful crisp acidity.
Atticus Winery | Yamhill-Carlton AVA
Co-owner/Winemaker Ximena Orrego was born in Peru and raised throughout Latin America. She and her husband, Guy Insley, collectively have lived in more than 10 countries, but they fell in love with the Willamette Valley on their very first visit in 2004 and immediately decided to put down roots, planting Atticus Vineyard from scratch in 2005 on what once was a clover field, building a house on the property and permanently making this their home in 2007.
Sip: What can people expect from your 2024 vintage, and why?
Ximena Orrego: It has been very interesting to see our vineyard evolve and respond to the challenges that Mother Nature has sent us through the years. Although it is a warmer site, I feel there is more nuance now and while it has always had a strong personality, the minerality is now more pronounced as the vines have matured. I’m really excited about 2024. It reminds me a bit of 2019 — one of my favorite vintages. It is nice to have a break from the curveballs Mother Nature has been sending us the last few vintages. I think this vintage will be really beautiful. It is still too early, and the majority of wines are going through malolactic fermentation, but during harvest I saw this lovely combination of power and richness in flavors combined with a lot of elegance. There was a wide window to pick fruit in the best possible conditions, so I am looking forward to seeing the difference between our early picks and the later ones. In response to the quality of the fruit and the wonderful energy in the winery, I also tried a few different things with my ferments and cap management. I am excited to see how things evolve.
Sip: In general, was there anything special, notable or different about the 2024 harvest compared to past harvests — in terms of the weather, harvest crew, supply chain, your customer base, etc.?
XO: The weather was amazing during harvest so I feel I was constantly smiling. I respond well to sunshine. The moderate temperatures we enjoyed allowed flavor development to take place with little risk of having accelerated sugar accumulation, which is always great to see happen.
Sip: What was the best/highest point of the harvest? Were there any low/bad times? Was there a special event or occasion that made this past harvest particularly memorable?
XO: One of my favorite things this year was that every day we picked was beautiful. We were able to start early in the morning and witness the most magical sunrises. The crews were happy and energized. It was a perfect way to start the days. In general, everything went so smoothly. I kept waiting for something to happen because it always does but it was a real privilege to be part of Harvest 2024. There was great energy both in the vineyard and the winery and I know that it will reflect in the wines.
LucidWild Estate | Dundee Hills AVA
Owned by the husband-and-wife team of Blair and L.J. Nicholas, LucidWild Estate makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines under the guidance of winemaker extraordinaire Isabelle Meunier, who also vinifies for Aubaine and her own LAVINEA brand. The estate’s 26 acres of dry-farmed Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines were planted 25 years ago in the Dundee Hill’s trademark rich, red volcanic Jory soils, where the first Pinot was planted in the Willamette Valley.
Sip: What can people expect from your 2024 vintage, and why?
Blair Nicholas: The 2024 vintage at LucidWild Estate is shaping up to be one of our best yet, thanks to an ideal season. The balance of warm days and cool nights allowed our grapes to ripen beautifully and naturally, resulting in wines that are fresh, vibrant and full of character. The resulting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay displayed bright acidity, balanced flavors and a strong expression of our unique Dundee Hills terroir.
Sip: What was special or different about the 2024 harvest compared to past years?
BN: The 2024 vintage was a year of near-perfect conditions. The growing season started with ample rain in the early months, giving the vines a solid foundation to draw upon. The summer months provided steady, moderate temperatures, with just a few warmer days in July, which helped with ripening. September and October brought well-timed rain that had little impact on the grapes’ integrity. Compared to previous years, 2024 felt like a welcome return to normalcy, with yields slightly above average and fruit that came in clean, measured and healthy.
Sip: What were the highlights and challenges of the harvest?
BN: The highlight of the 2024 harvest was undoubtedly the consistency and quality of the fruit. Seeing the vineyard thrive naturally under such ideal conditions was incredibly rewarding. The only real challenge we faced was a brief rainstorm during bloom that affected some vineyards in the region, but our site was luckily not impacted. Overall, 2024 was a year of balance, patience and optimism. We are excited to share this exceptional vintage and can’t wait for everyone to experience the wines that came from such an outstanding season.
Perkins Harter | Eola-Amity Hills AVA
Renaissance woman/winemaker Shelby Perkins began her career as a groundwater lab assistant, later a nuclear policy specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy doing technical research related to nuclear weapons and waste cleanup — and an occasional rafting guide. She was also once a science policy fellow at the National Academies, where she examined climate geoengineering. After a life-altering trip to Antarctica, she paddled down yet another path in 2006, when she came to Oregon to make wine using Chardonnay sourced from the biodynamic Johan Vineyard in the Van Duzer Corridor AVA. Nowadays, she presses grapes primarily from her estate Bracken Vineyard, which has undergone some major changes itself. Between 2020-21, the vineyard suffered damage from the triple menace of voles, wildfire smoke and ice, so a massive replanting effort provided an opportunity to reshape how the vineyard was laid out and to plant rootstocks better suited to dry farming.
Sip: What can people expect from your 2024 vintage, and why?
Shelby Perkins: Beautiful wines, a great vintage, near perfect and the wines are already showing the stunning beauty of this vintage in the cellar.
Sip: In general, was there anything special, notable or different about the 2024 harvest compared to past harvests — in terms of the weather, harvest crew, supply chain, your customer base, etc.?
SP: I guess what was almost atypical is the perfection with which the vintage unfurled after so many twists and turns — but this is life, isn’t it? After a rainy winter, spring was slow to arrive in the Willamette Valley. We saw an early bud emergence from the grapevines on March 29, yet managed to dodge some frost damage bullets.
Then, as our buds turned to shoots and began to stretch for the sky, a massive coronal mass ejection on the sun flung a very strong magnetic storm towards Earth. This storm electrified rocks, soil and vine — and gave a most incredible display of the aurora borealis on the night of May 10. The cold spring season continued, and flowering did not begin until June 12. When the heat arrived, it arrived in full force. Several successive days of 100+ degrees in early July set records and quickly desiccated our topsoil. Temperatures turned cooler than average in mid-August and even provided unusual rain showers — a much welcome change in the weather as wildfires burned more acres of land in Oregon this year than any since reliable records began. Rain showers were also sporadic through September and our fruit rolled in beautifully this year. We began picking for sparkling wines on September 8 and concluded with our last Pinot Noir pick on September 28.
All of our 2024 wines are now resting in barrel, and I am over the moon to have this “aurora” vintage tucked in safely.
Sip: What was the best/highest point of the harvest? Were there any low/bad times? Was there a special event or occasion that made this past harvest particularly memorable?
SP: We had Aligoté and Pinot Meunier come online for the first harvest in 2024. The Aligoté went to Walter Scott Wines, but I used the Pinot Meunier for both a red wine and sparkling base, which was exciting and a definite highlight of the year. New varieties are alternative lenses with which a maker can explore the terroir of a site.
A low point in the harvest was centered on hearing about fruit going unharvested by various people in the industry. It is sad to think that all of the resources that go into farming are not being realized because market forces are so fickle. There is definitely room in this industry for any innovation or idea that helps us become more agile in an increasingly uncertain world.
Interested in the 2024 Washington Wine Harvest READ HERE.
