2017 Bordeaux Vintage Report

Recently the Flickinger sales team had the pleasure of visiting Bordeaux to taste the latest 2017 vintage during en primeur week. We visited 35 châteaux on both banks in our 4 days there in addition to attending a very comprehensive tasting of 100+ wines at one of Bordeaux's biggest negociants. Our experience there has given us an invaluable look into the vintage as a whole as well as how the individual communes and chateaux performed.

2017 is overall quite a good vintage that will have many great wines to offer. An early harvest followed a mild winter and warm summer that yielded physiologically ripe fruit that was largely unaffected by some showers late in the growing season. The biggest story of the vintage was two rounds of severe frost in late April that reduced the crop at some estates by as much as 40% of more. The good news is that it did not affect overall quality - the most notable thing (outside of reduced yields) was the effect it had on the chateaux's blends. As the early ripening Merlot was most affected, you will see increases in Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc in many blends. While not as powerful the 2015 and 2016 vintages that precede it, 2017 has elegant ripe fruit balanced by generally suave tannins and good acidity. The use of new oak was generally reduced as well so as not to overwhelm the elegant purity of the vintage, and those producers who resisted the urge to extract too heavily were rewarded with wines of balance and finesse that should hopefully gain in weight during the elevage process. Excluding 2015 & 2016, this is easily the best vintage since 2010.

There are good to great wines to found throughout the region and all the major communes. Pauillac, St. Julien and St. Estèphe showed excellent consistency, while Margaux and Pessac were affected a bit more by the frost but still produced many excellent wines. The Right Bank most certainly had more frost damage, with many Pomerol and St. Emilion estates showing significant reductions in yields. Again, while quantity may have been affected, quality is spot on. Another bright spot of the vintage is the white wines - pretty much across the board the whites on both banks showed very well with excellent freshness and beautiful fruit.
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Weather: as is often the case, this was the main influencing factor on the style of the wines in 2017. The winter of 2016/17 was a dry and mild one, and this led to an early bud break in late March. Warmer temperatures continued until the defining event of the growing season - the savage frosts on the nights of April 27th and 28th. Many chateaux across the region lost much of their crops, with a few very unlucky ones not even managing to bottle anything commercially viable. However, as is often the case, those chateaux whose vineyards are located in more advantageous (i.e. closer to the river on the left bank, or higher up on the plateau in Pomerol or on the Limestone escarpment of St-Emilion) escaped relatively unscathed - that is to say most classed growths managed to enjoy a relatively normal crop. May and June again were warmer than average with almost no rain until a very intense period of precipitation at the end of June. The steady conditions up until then enabled a very even flowering for those vines that had not been damaged by the frost, and the rains that arrived shortly thereafter were timed perfectly to restart the vines' growth after the dry period. July and August were also very dry, but quite a bit cooler than average. This period was instrumental in developing the character for the vintage, as the cool conditions enabled the soaring, pretty and high-toned fruit aromas that many wines possess. The dryness allowed the grapes to ripen near-perfectly and led to a relatively early harvest, and it was only some early-September rain that caused any issues with regards to the timing of the harvest. Some opted to harvest earlier to preserve freshness, while others decided to wait and harvest once the grapes had regained concentration after the rains.

Appellations: In 2017 there were no weather variations from appellation to appellation - each enjoyed or endured the same conditions throughout the season. The only differences were based on the specific location of vineyards with relation to how badly each was affected by the frost (if they were at all). The Merlot crop was hit the hardest, so you will see that Cabernet Sauvignon features more prominently in blends on the left bank. Talking to producers on the right bank, they say that it is a right-bank vintage, but I would say that our tastings suggested otherwise - with perhaps Pauillac edging ahead of its neighbors in terms of quality, though it is a very thin advantage. The important point is, in 2017 in particular, to make sure to choose your producer carefully. There are some wines on both banks that have been extracted a little too heavily and/or over oaked, and those are wines to be avoided as they are out of balance and likely will not age very successfully.

Wines: the red wines of 2017 are far from homogenous - the April frost put paid to that notion - but in those areas that escaped the worst damage, the growing conditions were relatively benign. The warm winter and spring produced and early bud break and enabled a smooth flowering period, while the cool, dry summer allowed wines with great aromatic intensity and ripe, supple tannins to develop. Those producers who were gentle with their extractions and judicious in their use of new and/or high-toast oak barrels were able to produce wines with open-knit personalities, fresh, vibrant fruit and floral notes that wraps around a solid mineral core. Alcohol levels are fairly modest too (in the 13%-13.5% range for the most part), and the best wines have a wonderful overall sense of harmony. Levels of concentration are not quite what they were in 2015 or 2016, but it is the balance that will allow successful ageing of the best wines - in much the same way as it did with the 2001s and should do for the 2014s also. The overall style on both banks is of classicism and freshness, but without quite the same concentration as the '15s and '16s; concentration and textural purity is certainly better than the 2014s in general, while the fruit character is also far more distinctive, and the tannins are better-managed due to optimum phenolic ripeness being achieved by harvest time.

The unqualified success story of the vintage in terms of quality has to belong to the dry whites. Freshness and tension were evident in just about every sample we tried, while alcohol levels are again moderate and the fruit is elegant, complex and perfectly ripe as a result of the even growing conditions and the relatively cool summer. Overall the dry whites possess greater depth than either of the '15s or '16s, and those of you who are fans of this style are in for a treat.

Sauternes and Barsac were hit particularly hard by the April frosts, and many properties produced a tiny fraction of what they normally do. However, those that did manage to make it through the tough April conditions were rewarded with grapes that maintained their freshness throughout the summer and then conditions which were very favorable for the spread of botrytis. The resulting wines are fresh, balanced and intense, and should age very well indeed.
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Our recommendations from each commune:

Haut-Medoc/Medoc: Cantemerle, Sociando Mallet, Potensac
St-Estephe: Calon Segur, Montrose, Cos d'Estournel,
Pauillac: Mouton-R, Clerc Milon, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande, Lynch Bages, Pedesclaux (Latour)
St-Julien: Beychevelle, Clos du Marquis, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Las Cases, Leoville Barton, Talbot
Margaux: Ch. Margaux, Palmer, Rauzan Segla, Giscours, Malescot St-Exupery, D'Issan
Pessac-Leognan: Haut-Bailly, Pape Clement, Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Smith Haut Lafite, Latour-Martillac
St-Emilion: Figeac, Cheval Blanc, Angelus, Pavie, Canon, La Gaffeliere, Beausejour Becot, Larcis Ducasse, Pavie Macquin, La Mondotte
Pomerol: L'Eglise Clinet, L'Evangile, La Conseillante, Bon Pasteur, Clinet
Blanc: Latour-Martillac, Dom. de Chevalier, Pape Clement, SH Lafitte, Haut-Brion, La Mission H-B, Haut Bailly
Sauternes/Barsac: Coutet, La Tour Blanche, Lafaurie Peyraguey, Yquem

Best Values:

Right bank: Tour St-Christophe, Bellefont-Belcier, Les Cruzelles, La Chenade, Montlandrie
Left bank: Pedesclaux, Potensac, Cantemerle, Labegorce, Gloria, Meyney
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Pricing: the all-important question of pricing hangs over us each year, and merchants and negociants make their annual pleas to the chateaux to be considerate, and thus far chateau-owners and negociants in Bordeaux are making all the right noises about Euro release prices coming down. Whether this will help the US market is unclear, as the Euro is about 10% stronger now that it was at the same time last year, with no sign that this trend will be reversed any time soon. This is, of course, of no concern to the chateaux owners so we will just have to see what they decide, but there does seem to be recognition, widespread or otherwise, that in order to have any hopes of a positive campaign prices must come down since the wines are not of the same standard as the preceding two vintages. Our hopes are that some bold owner will come out early at a price that engages consumers, and that others follow suite. We shall see - but rest assured that we voiced our opinions forcefully to all and sundry when we were there!

Summary: Overall the 2017 wines of all colors are refined, balanced and classic in style. These all used to be descriptors for wines which were a bit thin and uninteresting, but that is far from the case in 2017. The fruit is vibrant and ripe, and displays layers of complexity at this early stage, while acidity levels are high and the tannins are ripe and smooth. The accessible and precocious nature of the vintage means that most wines should be able to be enjoyed from a fairly young age, and should age nicely due to the excellent balance that many of them have, even if they will likely not enjoy the same longevity as the '15s or '16s. You will, however, be able to enjoy them while the '15s and '16s age in your cellar, which is no bad thing. The frost and early harvest are the defining characteristics of the vintage, but there is no question that the top estates produced superb wines that will provide immense satisfaction in years to come. Finally, please don't forget that the whites have incredible freshness and intensity, and this has to be the best vintage for this category in many years, while the quantity produced of the sweets is tiny, but what has been made appears to be quite lovely.

We will be offering out individual wines as they are released over the next few weeks, and intermittent summaries of available wines will be sent out too. Please check your emails to see what is available each day, and I would suggest acting as quickly as you can if you would like to secure your favorite wines. Even though yields were up overall across the region, unfortunately there is no way of telling how many cases of each wine will be released as the habit of many of the higher-end chateaux has been to release smaller and smaller quantities with each passing campaign (though one prominent negociant claimed recently to us that this phenomenon has been somewhat exaggerated by the media).

Finally: good luck!
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