Ten Years On: The 1997 Vintage
A focus of this site, particularly during 2007, has been Bordeaux. Nevertheless, this will not show through in this tasting, as with the 1997 vintage we have a very difficult year for the red wines of the region, with the double whammy of unripe grapes and a wet harvest. As a result, many of the wines are said to be fully mature now, at just ten years of age, which will be a great disappointment to those who bought them en primeur, when the prices were sky-high. I have no bottles in the cellar, as although I accept a few wines have turned out nicely mature and attractive (and the 1997 Poujeaux was fabulous), providing early drinking, my early experience with the vintage, tasting a selection of wines at nearly six years of age, was enough to dissuade me from ever buying or drinking the wines again.
Of course, Bordeaux is not just red wine, and when there is failure in one area there may be success in another. In 1997 the conditions in Sauternes were excellent, and some high quality wines were produced as a result. I have included two such representative samples below. Burgundy is another story, with some good wines in both red and white; the region does not at present dominate my cellar, nevertheless I have included a few minor examples. The Rhône Valley did not see an exceptional vintage, although there are good wines to be found, and there is just a single wine representing this region. The same can be said of Champagne.
There are other regions, however, beside Sauternes, which saw great success in 1997, starting with the Loire Valley. It was a good vintage for red wines, but also for the sweet whites of the region, and these latter wines are thus well represented here. In Tuscany, too, there was very favourable weather, and there are some very fine examples of Chianti to be found. The same is true of the Douro; this was largely a declared vintage, and although perhaps not up to the quality provided by 1994 there are many super wines. The Graham’s, tasted here, is the first of a case.
