Bordeaux 2017: Summer & Autumn
After the frost, the Bordelais headed out into the vines to assess the damage, and for most it was a depressing sight. All was not lost though. A good number of estates, including many of the most famous names, had not been too badly affected. It was a particularly cruel frost, in that it seemed to hit the petits châteaux in minor appellations hardest, devastating cru bourgeois vineyards more than the cru classé estates, devastating ‘mere’ grand cru estates while premier grand cru classé vineyards went unscathed. For those with extensive losses, there was still the possibility of a second (or even third) generation of buds and bunches, although that is easier said than done. First, it requires a lot of work, and while this is economically viable for cru classé estates who sell the resulting wines for a high price, it simply was not worth the effort for the petits châteaux, who could spend more money repruning than they could make selling the resulting wine. And that is if they made any wine; second-generation fruit ripens much later, if at all. Many chose to play the long game, disregarding any potential for a crop on the frost-damaged vines, and to tend, train and ultimately prune them in anticipation of the 2018 vintage.
The Flowering
After the upset of April, May was sunnier than the norm, with below-average rainfall, and most importantly it remained steadily warm throughout the month, with no cold snap to upset the floraison. The flowering began in the middle of May and on the whole it progressed well across the region. This was a particularly early floraison, getting underway a full week ahead of the thirty-year average, a consequence of that early budbreak and the generally good weather.
The temperatures began creeping up towards the end of the month, which meant that even those vines which had rebudded after the frost, producing second-generation bunches, also had a good flowering about three weeks behind the first generation, so lagging behind the thirty-year average by about two weeks. At least the good weather meant there was no further diminution of yields, by coulure or millerandage, on either generation of bunches.
