Bordeaux 2017: Broad Impressions
Before I fling myself head first into my regional tasting reports (and don’t forget part six of this introduction and summary, which highlights some of the pitfalls of buying en primeur) it is probably worthwhile me trying to provide some sort of summary of my findings from the primeur tastings of the 2017 vintage.
That, admittedly, is easier said than done. This is a vintage of extremely heterogeneous quality, and it is impossible to provide a truly succinct summary on a regional or even an appellation level. In many appellations I found excellent wines, close to the level of quality seen 2016 or 2015, this being typical for vineyards which escaped the frost and which could then take full advantage of the benevolently warm and dry growing season that followed. These are wines with sweet-fruit aromas, dark and ripe, the palate fresh but full, and supported by velvety-ripe tannins and nicely balanced acidity. But then, five minutes later, I would taste a wine from the same appellation which was the polar opposite, lean and light, green and herbaceous, with a bitter tannin profile. You can certainly taste the frost in this vintage.
In response to this apparent dichotomy I did hear some during the primeur tastings proclaim that tasting the 2017 vintage was like tasting two vintages in one. While I appreciate that they were only trying to provide a soundbite, to try to carve up the 2017 vintage into two rather neat halves is something of an oversimplification. This is a vintage where there is a broad spectrum of quality, ranging from the very top, to the very bottom, with plenty of wines at both extremes, but also plenty of wines between the two. It is not a vintage divided neatly between delicious unfrosted early-harvest wines on one side, and the less endearing leaner-greener wines from frosted vineyards on the other. There are important complicating issues which include, but which are not limited to, the extent of partial frosting of a vineyard and the response to that situation, the timing of picking which was a significant driver of style in both red and white, as well as the conditions during September which favoured the late-ripeners over the earlier-ripening Merlot, resulting in some unusual blends on both banks.
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