Full Chablis 2017 vintage report with wine ratings

Tim Atkin MW reports on the 2017 vintage in Chablis ahead of his full Burgundy en primeur report, coming soon to Decanter Premium...

You’ve seen a selection of Atkin’s best Chablis from the 2017 vintage, now read his full vintage report and see all of his tasting notes and ratings.

Summary

Is the Chablis 2017 vintage worth buying?

If you like classic Chablis for medium-term drinking, the answer is yes. Prices will increase on 2016 in many cases, but these wines remain comparative Burgundian bargains.

Full report

Insomniacs might have been used to it, but for Burgundians who relish eight, health-affirming hours of shut-eye, April 2017 was a month of brutally interrupted sleep.For nearly two weeks, they arm-wrestled with nature as a series of black frosts descended from the north. Chablis, a region that is used to freezing temperatures, was particularly badly affected.Some locals told me that the gelées noires that struck in the early hours of 18 April, and didn’t release their icy nocturnal grip for 11 days, were some of the most severe they’d witnessed.‘In 30 years, I’ve never seen vines in the high part of the Valmur grand cru hit like that,’ says Jean-Claude Bessin of his eponymous domaine.

Vineyards on the right bank of the River Serein generally suffered worse than those on the left bank, but what was unusual about the frosts was that they didn’t just hit low-lying areas. All of the grands crus were affected to a greater or lesser extent, as were the top premiers crus of Montée de Tonnerre and Mont de Milieu.

Further north, the villages of Lignorelles, Ligny-le-Châtel, La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne and Villy took a pounding, too. Overall, Chablis produced about two-thirds of a normal crop.

Quick link: See all 81 Chablis 2017 tasting notes from this report

Protecting the vines

Chablisiens used anything they could to protect their vines: bonfires of tyres or straw bales, large candles, electric cables, fans and watering systems. Their success rate was patchy, but these measures staved off the worst effects of the frost, even if they left what Romain Collet of Domaine Jean Collet calls ‘a psychological scar’.

Richard Rottiers of Domaine des Malandes was not alone in spending 11 nights out of 15 stumbling around in the dark trying to save his inchoate crop. ‘It’s very tiring,’ he says. ‘You get burnt by the candles you’ve lit to protect your vines and you keep falling over.’

Some producers lost everything, others fared well in the circumstances, but after 2016 – another short crop that was hit by a gruesome threesome of frost, hail and mildew – long faces were common.

Volumes down

The larger volumes of the recently harvested 2018 vintage might have cheered producers up, but 2017 is still a year that many of them would prefer to forget. And yet, after a terrible start, it has turned out rather well.

The only problem is the small quantities: yields were affected directly by the frost, but the stress engendered by ten nights of sub-zero temperatures also led to grape shatter (‘coulure’) – irregular bunches forming on the vine due to the loss of berries or the failure of them to form in the first place.

There was so little wine that some producers were selling their 2017 Chablis by January 2018. With demand exceeding supply, prices on the bulk market increased from €500 a feuillette (a 132-litre barrel) to €1,100.

The low yields produced concentration in the berries – so much so that it could potentially overwhelm Chablis’ freshness and trademark minerality, according to Patrick Piuze. ‘It was all about when you picked,’ he explains.

Harvest

As ever, picking dates varied considerably from producer to producer. The early birds started in the last few days of August, while the late harvesters were putting away their secateurs on 16 September.

For such an early vintage – something that can be traced back to above-average temperatures at the start of the growing season – the best 2017s are surprisingly fresh and taut. This was due to a cool summer, with significant rainfall in July, but also to producers’ desire to pick early to counter the high sugar levels in the berries.

Despite the wet July, there was little if any botrytis, as August was very dry. ‘The grapes were perfect,’ says Didier Séguier of William Fèvre. ‘There was nothing to remove.’

Do the wines resemble another Chablis vintage?

Most producers I spoke to plumped for a combination of two. Patrick Piuze picked 2014 and 2015, Vincent Dauvissat chose 2014 and 2002, and Benoît Droin nominated 2014 and 2010.

The balance between power and acidity is a key feature of many 2017s. Some wines are a little exotic, edging closer to the softness and richness of 2016, but the top examples are classic Chablis.

Are they as good as the 2014s?

2014 is my pick of the last decade’s Chablis harvests. Overall, the 2017s lack the thrilling crunch and bite of that majestic vintage but, at their best, they aren’t far behind in quality. Jean-Claude Bessin told me that he thinks the wines will tighten up in bottle, moving even closer to 2014 in style.

Alcohol levels are reasonable at between 12% and 12.5%, and the top wines have the structure to age better than the 2015s and ‘16s.

One thing that I noticed in a number of bottlings was a slightly phenolic, pleasantly bitter edge. ‘The skins were thick in 2017,’ explains Charlène Pinson of Domaine Laurent Pinson, ‘and there wasn’t much juice in the berries.’

2017 is a vintage where differences between Chablis’ terroirs are comparatively easy to spot, which was not the case in 2016. ‘The wines are much cleaner and definitely more interesting than the 2016s,’ says Isabelle Raveneau of Domaine Raveneau.

Chablis 2017 ratings:

• See all 81 Chablis 2017 tasting notes from this report here

• See Atkin’s best Chablis 2017 wines, all scoring 96 points and above

Below is a selection of wines scoring 94 and 95 points. Click on the wines to see the full tasting note.

See all 81 Chablis 2017 tasting notes from this report

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