2017 Bordeaux: An especially memorable vintage
James and Executive Editor Nick Stock tasted more than 1,000 wines during the December 2019 Bordeaux trip.
Wine producers in Bordeaux call the 2017 ‘the forgotten vintage’ but it doesn’t deserve the name. Despite destructive frosts in April and some rain in September, many winemakers managed to produce outstanding wines from their vineyards, showcasing great technique and precision in their viticulture and enology.
“It was forgotten before it was vinified or even picked,” said Bruno Borie, the owner of second growth Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou. “It’s crazy.”
Lilian Barton-Sartorius, owner of nearby Chateau Leoville Barton, added: “Some people already had it in their minds that the 2017 vintage was poor quality before they tasted it. Some even said it had to be bad because it ended with a seven and there’s seldom been an outstanding vintage that ends with a seven.”
Some of this negativity can be derived from the marketplace, according to Bordeaux winemakers. “People tend to talk about it in a negative way because of the market,” said Jean-Charles Cazes, owner of Chateau Lynch-Bages. “It comes after 2015 and 2016. There was not much thirst for 2017 en primeur. However, the vintage will find its place. People will enjoy the 2017 when they discover the wines. It will be a bit like 2001 or 2004.”
-
- Jean-Luc Thunevin, owner of Chateau Valandraud, said the 2017 Bordeaux vintage was selling well.
-
- The Bordeaux 2017 vintage is a hard one to summarise, but many unique wines were made.
-
- James and Executive Editor Nick Stock taste wines at Chateau Canon-la-Gaffeliere with Stephan von Neipperg in 2019.
Best 2017 Bordeaux selling well
Some vintners said most of the well-made wines in 2017 have already been sold to the trade in Bordeaux as well as outside France. “The problem was that it was expensive but there was not a lot of stock,” said Jean-Luc Thunevin, owner of Chateau Valandraud and also a respected consulting enologist and merchant. “Winemakers mostly sold the 2017 and the 2015 while much of the 2016 is still here.”
We will see how 2017 sells to consumers this year as the wines arrive in the marketplace now. The vintage does have a poor reputation. One of the biggest wine merchants in China recently told me she thought the vintage was poor quality and was surprised to hear I found many outstanding wines in my tastings in December. It doesn’t help that some top wines are overpriced. They are about the same price as 2015 and 2016 – which are two classic quality vintages.
While all this discussion about the vintage provides background to the story of 2017 Bordeaux, reality only hits when tasting the wines from bottle. And last December, I and Executive Editor Nick Stock tasted about 1,000 different wines during a two-week trip in the region from the greatest estates of Bordeaux to merchants’ blends. We were surprised by the quality of the wines in general. We expected most of the top wineries to make outstanding wines. But we were taken by surprise by the very good to outstanding quality of many wines from lesser appellations such as Fronsac and Cotes de Castillon.
This underlines how the April frosts were less severe in some appellations even though Bordeaux lost about 30 to 40 percent of its crop overall. Some wineries were not affected at all, while others lost everything. “People forget that the frost affected the worst places first,” said Stephane Derenoncourt, the respected consulting enologist in Bordeaux who oversees the winemaking for close to 100 estates in the region.
-
- Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont of Chateau Certan.
-
- The top names of Sauternes made excellent 2017 wines.
-
- James visits Olivier Bernard, Adrien Bernard and furry friends at Domaine de Chevalier.
Big names, best sites create unique wines
What I can say from our tastings is that it’s very hard to generalize about the vintage. It’s not clear that, for example, Pomerol was better than St.-Emilion in 2017, but it’s more than evident that the best vineyards made the best wines. I did feel that northern parts of the Medoc made the best wines in general, particularly St.-Estephe and Pauillac. But big names such as Chateau Margaux and Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou also made superb 2017s.
White, both dry and sweet are also excellent quality. Sauternes is particularly noteworthy with the top names making superlative wines that have plenty of richness and structure for aging, but also deliver wonderful intensity and freshness making for superb drinkability now.
“2017 is a new age for Sauternes,” said Eric Kohler, technical director of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Rieussec. “I hope we can continue to make this fresh and intense style with great botrytis. The botrytis came very early and set very quick so we had a wonderful quality. The grapes were very clean and fresh and therefore made great Sauternes.”
This is also why Chateau d’Yquem was one of the wines of the vintage in 2017. It’s a spectacular wine with incredible agility, richness and energy. I rated it 99 points and it reminded me of the legendary 2001 Yquem. “We don’t make many wines like the 2017,” admitted Pierre Lurton, the head of Yquem as well as Cheval Blanc.
There were many unique wines in our tasting of 2017 Bordeaux. Considering so many excellent wines were produced despite the terrible April frosts and problems with the grape growing season, it should be all the more memorable. Certainly it should not be forgotten.
– James Suckling, CEO & editor