Thoughts on a Surprising 2017 Bordeaux En Primeur
The quality of 2017 is much better than most people might expect. Clearly, as I wrote earlier in the week, it’s not in the same league as the outstanding 2016 and 2015 vintages. Yet, nor is it the largely disappointing 2013. Over the past two weeks tasting in Bordeaux, I rated many wines 90 points or more together with my son Jack. I scored some of the wines from the great names of Bordeaux, such as the first growths and blue-chip Right Bank wines, between 96 to 99 points. Of course, these were the rare exceptions where remarkable terroirs, precise viticulture and winemaking delivered terrific results. The 2017 vintage underlines that vintage variations among the top wines of Bordeaux — like most key wine regions in the world — are much less than in the past.
We tasted with hundreds of 2017 samples, and some were reviewed in blind tastings too.
“The terroir really made the difference in 2017; we didn’t suffer like in many other parts from the frost or the cool weather in the summer,” professes Helene Garcin-Leveque, who owns Pomerol’s Clos L’Eglise, St.-Emilion’s Barde-Haut and Poesia. “The 2017 was a piece of cake compared to the 2013.”
I am still struggling with comparisons to other vintages, but as I wrote before, wines from leading names can be comparable, in terms of quality, to the polished, refined 2012s, or even to the more structured and fresh 2014s. A few wines could be between 2014 and 2015. The top Sauternes and a number of dry whites could definitely be on par with the efforts in 2015 and 2016.
Imbued with beautiful intensity and clarity, Château d’Yquem Sauternes 2017 is the white wine of the vintage.
“The 2017 is like 2014 but with a little more,” says Hubert de Boüard of Chateau Angelus, who also manages and consults for dozens of other properties in the region. “We captured the fruit and fine tannins that the vintage gave us. We searched for balance in our wines. 10 years ago, we would have harvested 10 days later and extracted much more in our fermentation. But we are a little less interested in alcohol now and want to be more precise with our fruit and tannins.”
Boüard’s comments that 2017 is better than 2014 only hold true for a select number of chateaux. Even some of the top wines of 2017 — first growths, such as Haut-Brion, or cult Pomerols, such as Le Pin — are rated three or four points off their scores in great years. As I mentioned in my First Impressions of 2017 Vintage in Bordeaux (Right Bank) article, trying to say whether it is a Right or Left Bank year makes no sense in 2017. Nonetheless, out of all the top appellations, I can say that I was really impressed with Pauillac. On the other hand, Pessac-Léognan was a slight disappointment with the exception of its outstanding dry whites.
The terrible frosts in late April last year reduced the volume of the 2017 harvest by more than 30 percent. Some wineries, particularly those in low-lying areas in less prestigious appellations, lost their entire 2017 crop. Some were forced to use part of their grapes from second-generation buds in their new wines. In spite of that, I was surprised — considering the press reports about the frost — that so many of the top wineries we visited (about 60 in total) were unaffected.
Château Latour wowed us with their pure cabernet sauvignon this year. As our red wine of the vintage, Château Latour Pauillac 2017 shows such precision.
Some winemakers in Bordeaux certainly have an extreme sense of optimism for their new wines. “We think that 2017 is better than our 2014,” says Baptiste Guinaudeau, whose family owns the exquisite Chateau Lafleur in Pomerol. “It was very dry in the summer, and we had very small berries. We think that it is comparable to 2005, 2010, 2015 or 2016. It is a great vintage for us. The density of fruit and tannins is really extraordinary. It is rare that we have a trilogy of great vintages like 2015, 2016 and 2017.”
The Lafleur 2017 is clearly a great red and one of the top ten wines of the vintage, but wines like that are very few and far between. “The 2017 was a vintage of dreams but it rained too much in September,” says Claire Lurton, who with her husband Gonzague made some super wines this year from Haut-Bages-Liberal to Durfort-Vivens — which are all made from biodynamically grown grapes. “It would have been a truly great vintage. We had beautiful ripeness. But it didn’t happen with the rain in September. With all the work we did in the vineyard and the winery, we can’t say now that 2017 did not make excellent wines. It was not an ideal year, but we made excellent wines.”
Indeed, this is what makes Bordeaux so special today in the world of wine. It sometimes comes so close to greatness, and then Mother Nature robs some of the quality away at the last minute. The 2017 vintage will always be remembered for the horrible frost, but the top wines of the vintage should also add to the reputation of this unique year. — CEO/Editor James Suckling
To download the official tasting report in PDF format:
— 2017 Bordeaux En Primeur report with more than 770 wines listed in alphabetical order
— 2017 Bordeaux En Primeur report with more than 770 wines listed in descending order of score