2017 Burgundy Vintage

The year started cold and dry. January was a real winter, with mean temperatures around 0C and rainfall about 60% below normal, which let the vines rebuild their reserves. February and March turned mild, running 2.5C and 2.4C above normal, and when temperatures soared at the end of March, budbreak came fast and early, in early April. From that point the vines held a lead they kept all the way to harvest. April was very dry, with rainfall 2 to 3 times below normal in all three departments, and the warm, sunny, dry first half of the year kept disease away from the vineyards. At the end of April a cold spell of several days brought morning frosts, at a stage when young leaves and future bunches are particularly sensitive. Northern Burgundy took the brunt (Grand Auxerrois, the Chablisien and the Chatillonnais), along with a few rare sectors of the Maconnais and Cote Chalonnaise, though nothing on the scale of 2016. Growers determined not to relive 2016 banded together to burn bales of straw against the cold. Chablis was less fortunate: Alain Marcuello of William Fevre told Andrew Jefford that "the frost went on for 15 nights. Most growers ran out of frost candles after five days; there were none left anywhere in Europe by the end." From 23 May into early June temperatures held 6C above normal, and flowering began in the last days of May, several days ahead of the ten-year average, and went quickly, though heat disrupted it in some instances, as at Jacques Carillon's Puligny-Montrachet premier crus. Heat records fell in late June, 33.5C at Macon on 20 June and 36.4C at Dijon on 22 June. July and August were seasonal on average, alternating heatwave spells with cooler ones, and rain came mostly as thunderstorms. Hail on 10 July hit the Maconnais very locally and damaged grapes, largely in Morey-Saint-Denis. By August the Cote-d'Or and Yonne were short of water, and in some sectors drought stress stalled ripening until rain at the end of August released it. September turned autumnal, letting ripening finish calmly. The first grapes came in at the end of August, two weeks ahead of average, and harvest ran to mid-September on exceptionally healthy grapes, with sorting tables barely needed. The crop was large and could be the biggest since 2009 in Decanter's assessment, though some frost-hit sectors fell short of the yields they had hoped for.

• January rainfall about 60% below normal; February and March 2.5C and 2.4C above normal; budbreak in early April
• End of April frosts, worst in northern Burgundy and in Chablis
• Heat records of 33.5C at Macon on 20 June and 36.4C at Dijon on 22 June; hail on 10 July
• Harvest from the end of August to mid-September, two weeks ahead of average, on exceptionally healthy grapes

Arnaud Ente in Meursault, usually one of the first to pick, started on 25 August, and by 1 September the Chardonnay harvest was well under way in both the Cote de Beaune and the Maconnais. With rain in the forecast, the first reds came in around the same time: Charles Lachaux in Vosne-Romanee and Francois Millet at Domaine Comte de Vogue both began on 2 September. Others waited, with Sebastien Cathiard starting two weeks later and Domaine Ponsot on 19 September. Rain arrived on 9 September and came on and off for the following week. "If we could have counted on good weather, I'd have waited," Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac reflected. Finding pickers was a further headache at many estates.

• Arnaud Ente in Meursault began on 25 August
• Chardonnay well under way in the Cote de Beaune and Maconnais by 1 September
• First reds from 2 September; Domaine Ponsot waited until 19 September
• Rain from 9 September, on and off for about a week

After a succession of meagre years beset by hail, rot and frost, Decanter's William Kelley saw a plentiful crop to equal or surpass 2009, the region's last abundant vintage. Along the Cote d'Or the crop was plentiful and generally healthy, and vines frosted in 2016 tended to give especially generous, sometimes excessive, yields, with rumors of 100 hl/ha in parts of the Cote de Beaune, well above the appellation limits. Loic Dugat-Py of Gevrey-Chambertin argued that low yields were the secret to full ripeness and retained acidity, a view frequently seconded along the Cote. Kelley's verdict was that distinctions between producers would make all the difference, with Chardonnay, more tolerant of high yields, likely the more forgiving variety.

• Potentially the biggest overall crop since 2009
• Vines frosted in 2016 often gave generous, sometimes excessive, yields
• Low yields key to ripeness and acidity, per Loic Dugat-Py
• Some frost-hit sectors missed their hoped-for yields

The BIVB calls 2017 one of the most elegant expressions of Chardonnay, with balanced, aromatic whites showing citrus and white fruit, peach or apricot with air, and minerality and tension on the palate. It describes the reds as brightly colored and expressive, with small red and black fruit, silky tannins and a harmonious, subtle build without opulence. Skins were thick from the summer heat and generally well developed, reminding Cecile Tremblay of 2010, and sugars diluted by rain were seldom especially high. Jadot's Pierre Henri Gagey tentatively invoked the reds of 1999, and Vincent Dancer of Chassagne-Montrachet saw "the volume of 2015 with the acidity of 2014." Expectations for the whites were high, Kelley wrote.

• Whites: elegant, balanced and aromatic, with minerality and tension
• Reds: expressive, with silky tannins and no opulence; the BIVB calls 2017 a vintage all about pleasure
• Pierre Henri Gagey tentatively compared the reds to 1999
• Over-cropped Pinot Noir may be easy drinking but unlikely to be profound or age-worthy, per Kelley