I checked in recently with my friend Jim Baker, owner, winemaker, and vigneron of Chateau Niagara Winery Newfane, New York. http://chateauniagarawinery.com Jim’s avant-garde approach toward winemaking and the grapes in his vineyard can only be described as fascinating. Here are his candid insights into the year that was 2024 at his award-winning Chateau Niagara Winery.

“In classic cool climate viticulture, the only constant is change. We never know what the year will bring us and it creates a kind of resiliency in the vineyard managers and winemakers from these regions. It also creates some fantastic wines with incredible diversity. This year is no different. We escaped the late spring frost which hurt our neighbors in the Lake Erie region and our hearts went out to them as we got hit last year with that late frost and we lost two-thirds of our crop. We also did not have the wildfires from Quebec this year to contend with. It was a very early bud break with a wet spring and summer. This resulted in heavy downy and powdery mildew pressure. The latter half of the growing season heading to harvest was warm and dry, absolutely perfect for high-quality wine grapes. Longer hang time and good growing season with about 2800  growing degree days, which is measured by the temperatures degrees above 50 F. (A 70-degree day would therefore accumulate 70-50 or 20 growing-degree days.)  This is a measure of the total heat accumulation for the season. Harvest levels were a little under prediction and the berries were small and compact. This results in more intense aromas in whites and deeper colors and flavors in reds. We are very excited about the potential for the vintage!

In the fall we harvested our first crop of Fetească neagrǎ. We had hoped for barrels worth of wine, but the raccoons, deer, and turkey got to it first. We did harvest what we could and will likely do a very small bottling of about four cases. The grape showed me just a peek at what it can do this year. My initial tasting indicates that it falls between a Blaufrankisch and a Saperavi, with cherry, spice, black pepper, and smoke.”

Thank you, Jim, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share your thoughts and observations about the intricate factors that influenced your vineyard and winemaking this year. We all look forward to enjoying the fruits of your labor.