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We have an early appointment with Clos de Lambrays this morning so I\u2019ll type fast.<\/p>\n
It was an (almost) embarrassingly star-studded lineup yesterday, with far too many wines to go into great detail on each. So a word on the vintage itself, which is coming more and more into focus.<\/p>\n
The red wines are easy, ripe, charming, immediately enjoyable. They have some of the roundness of 2010 with the structure and approachability of 2006. Acidities aren\u2019t all that high (lower than 2016, certainly) so some wines do get a bit lost under the impressive weight of up-front fruit. Those that manage to retain their freshness, energy and balance, have made really outstanding wines.<\/p>\n
Almost universally, the reds of 2017 are a joy to taste and they will definitely give a great deal of early drinking pleasure. If we had a criticism (and we\u2019re being picky), it\u2019s that they are perhaps a bit too \u2018flirty\u2019. You\u2019re sometimes left wondering if they aren\u2019t missing a more serious, sophisticated side; something that will carry them into another dimension, like the beautiful acidity of 2016 or the impressive structure of 2015.<\/p>\n
In a few cases we also found that the definition of the different terroirs<\/em> was a little blurred by the volume and roundness of fruit. The most successful wines were those that managed to retain definition and transparency – which was clearly the challenge of the vintage.<\/p>\n While 2017 may not be the most serious or long-lived of vintages, it gets full marks for drinking pleasure. These are delicious, open, gourmand Burgundies – and where\u2019s the harm in that?!<\/p>\n Of yesterday\u2019s wines we were really impressed by all the Charmes and the Clos Vougeot we tasted. Both these grand cru seem to be showing really well in this vintage – none more so than those of the brilliant Yves Confuron (pictured above). Perot-Minot\u2019s Mazoy\u00e8res and Clos de B\u00e8ze were stand-out too.<\/p>\n We loved the extra \u2018grunt\u2019 of Thibault Liger-Belair\u2019s wines – the Richebourg was stunning but so too were some of the \u2018lesser\u2019 bottlings like the Bourgogne Rouge Les Grands Chaillots and Hautes C\u00f4tes de Nuits Clos du Prieur\u00e9 which clearly benefited from the extra volume of the vintage.<\/p>\n Of the villages, Chambolle has been showing particularly well. There\u2019s some hugely enticing rose-petal fragrance and lovely delicacy to them. Look out for Perrot-Minot\u2019s imposter (40% of this is actually premier cru fruit), the balletic Chambolle-Musigny Feusselottes from Mugneret-Gibourg, and Confuron\u2019s utterly knock-out Derri\u00e8re La Grange.<\/p>\n Now to Morey-Saint-Denis…<\/p>\n