2017 Burgundy: A nuanced, terroir-driven vintage
It’s an understatement to say that both the 2015 and 2016 Burgundy vintages are a hard act to follow. The generously ripe whites from 2015 are best consumed young, while the ripe and generous 2015 reds are oh-so-easy to love now and for years ahead.
Meanwhile, the excellent 2016 reds are scintillatingly precise while the whites are balanced and approachable. The only downside for both years is that precious little wine was made with weather events decimating grape yields on the Côte d-Or.
Compare those with the 2017 vintage, which was much more plentiful thanks to a drama-free grape growing season.
We tasted more than 600 Burgundies from 2017 in January; the cellars we visited were full and winemakers smiled as they recounted the rebound to fuller production levels which was repeated in 2018. We hope that consumers will be happy with so many wines more readily available and the prospect of lower prices after years of increases. The prices for 2017 for now are reportedly steady so it may not be until the 2018 vintage enters the market that consumers see lower prices.
2017 Burgundy red wines
Regardless of price, the high yields certainly affected the quality in 2017 as we found lighter and more delicate reds and slightly less structured whites in our tastings. Wine producers said that vines rebounded off the small yields of 2016 and set a generous amount of fruit in 2017. Clearly some growers found it hard to green harvest when crops have been short in the past.
The result is that 2017 reds are a mixed bag in terms of quality. Even within the range of a single producer, there are wines that hit very high marks of quality and concentration and wines that fall far short.
Nonetheless, many excellent wines can be found from regional Bourgogne right through to Grand Cru classification. If I was to describe the general character of the 2017 pinot noir wines it is a vintage with plenty of fragrance, attractive fruit, lacy tannins, reasonably strong terroir character, and an overall air of transparency and approachability.
A good ‘restaurant vintage’ as the French call them where the wines are exuberantly drinkable on release. In short, drink 2017 reds before 2015 and 2016 if you are lucky enough to have the option.
2017 Burgundy white wines
Chardonnay is a slightly different story. The vines were, on the whole, were more moderately and consistently cropped in 2017 and so wine quality is higher.
The wines are flavorsome, quite concentrated and have generally good levels of acidity, giving both length and structure. They are also quite reflective of terroir and express the classic characters of commune, classification and vineyard site with clarity.
This is an ideal vintage for whites and while the wines are drinking well young they also offer medium-term cellaring for those still game enough to hold onto white Burgundy for more than a moment.
“The vintage is perhaps close to 2000,” says Bouchard Père et Fils cellar master Frédéric Weber. “The reds deliver pleasure with silky, elegant tannins and round ripe fruit. The whites have the power and ripeness of 2015 but with better natural acidity.”
President of Maison Joseph Drouhin, Frédéric Drouhin, describes 2017 as “a classic vintage where nuances between terroir can be perceived.” He points out that “more powerful vintages like 2015 erase the influence of terroir, whereas 2017 has precision and nuance and the wines are approachable immediately.”
2017 Burgundy Grands Cru
And so with terroir being the most important factor in 2017 wines it is no surprise that our top ratings originate from the revered Grands Cru like Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, Grands Echézeaux, Corton and Corton-Charlemagne, Musigny, Bonnes Mares and Chambertin Clos de Bèze.
Our two top-rated wines (both 98 points) are both from the great Montrachet. The youthfully restrained but extremely powerful Joseph Drouhin Marquis de Laguiche 2017 is spectacular. The palate has a very plush, richly textural and expansive feel with a classic interplay between structure and exceptionally concentrated fruit presence. There’s Montrachet ‘wow factor’ here. From a plot in the Montrachet vineyard on the Puligny side between DRC and Ramonet, the Bouchard Père & Fils Montrachet 2017 has a flamboyant and complex style with a plushness to the palate and genuine density and fruit weight that is a hallmark of great Montrachet.
From the adjoining Chevalier-Montrachet, Bouchard Père & Fils (who hold 2.5 hectares of the total seven hectare) has delivered a stunning 2017 with incredible aromatic definition that leads to a beautifully precise palate with entrancing focus. Corton-Charlemagne wines from Olivier Leflaive and Jadot’s Domaine des Héritiers (this is 2016) round out some very exciting top tier whites in this report. There’s a number of exciting whites from Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault here too, both communes performing strongly in 2017.
Reds of good quality can be found to the north and south of the Côte with that all-important caveat that you really must do the research when buying 2017 reds. I cannot stress that enough. The beauty in the best wines is in their detail, their definition and their terroir-driven style. These are approachable wines (many winemakers talked about carefully managing extraction in 2017 reds) and are a faithful representation of origin and classification.
The red highlights are again clustered around the great Grand Cru sites. Faiveley, Joseph Drouhin, Jean-Claude Boisset, Domaine de Montille, Philippe Pacalet, Jadot and Albert Bichot all put their best reds into their rightful places at the top of the ratings. There’s depth to the quality in places like Beaune Premier Cru, Savigny-les-Beaune, Volnay and Pommard to the south and from Nuits-St- Georges right through to Gevrey-Chambertin in the north. And there’s certainly more of these wines to go around so hopefully, you’ll find them in the coming months as they make their way out of Burgundian cellars and around the world. — Nick Stock, Senior Editor