Tasting 2017

First we are all caught up in the current harvest, then everybody’s attention turns to tasting the previous vintage in barrel, ready for the flurry of Opening Offers in January. It is a tough call to cram in tastings at all the key domaines while sniffing out some new names, in the two short (or so it seems) months of October and November.

Quick progress report: the whites are excellent. There is no style comparison with the hotter years such as 2009, 2015 and probably 2018; nor the late and less ripe years such as 2004 and 2008. I can see some parallels with 2007 and 2011, but the 2017s are a class ahead: fine pure balanced wines, with perhaps not quite the same nervous tension as the exceptional 2014s. I have only just started in on the reds, so will report on those later.