Matt Walls reports on the wines of the Northern Rhône, including the likes of Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage and Condrieu...
Northern Rhône 2017
Concentrated, long-lived red wines, generally very good to excellent in quality, very ripe but not jammy. Apart from a clutch of top performers, whites can lack precision and focus.
4/5
Scroll down to see Matt’s tasting notes and scores
The Northern Rhône experienced very similar weather conditions to the Southern Rhône in the first part of the 2017 growing season. It got off to an early start, only to be interrupted by a sudden cold snap which slowed down growth.
Syrah is less prone to coulure (the failure of fruit to form after flowering) than Grenache, but nonetheless it affected yields; when the weather warmed up again, instead of concentrating on flowering, the vines focussed on vegetative growth.
The vines ‘couldn’t concentrate on two things at once,’ explains Michel Chapoutier, owner of numerous wine estates in the Northern and Southern Rhône.
The white varieties were more susceptible to coulure, however, and some estates suffered substantial losses.
‘In a vintage like this, St-Joseph is home to some of the best value wines in France’
From mid-May, conditions were very warm and sunny, and, like the Southern Rhône, extremely dry. Jean Gonon of Domaine Gonon in St-Joseph described a straightforward growing season with no disease pressure and homogenous ripening across the estate’s various parcels.
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‘We picked all the reds in four days…We were a bit disappointed at the end of picking because of the small harvest due to the dry conditions, but if we had the normal yield it would never have got ripe enough.’ They ended up with 27hl/ha against an average of 35hl/ha.
But there were some benefits to the lack of rain. First, it blessed the long harvest with healthy conditions, which started early in 2017 – the first whites being brought in at the end of August.
Secondly, it resulted in small berries with a large skin-to-juice ratio, meaning concentrated flavours and dense tannins that will make for long-lived reds.
The steep, chalky outcrop of the Les Royes vineyard owned by Domaine Courbis in St-Joseph.
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)
Comparisons
Whereas 2016 in the Northern Rhône was the perfect vintage for those looking for detailed, refreshing wines with clear typicity that will drink well straight away, 2017 is more a vintage for the cellar.
It demands patience but the reward will be complex wines that command respect. The style is lush and giving – occasionally too generous and potent – more impressive but less immediate and drinkable than the thirst-quenching 2016s.
Côte-Rôtie performed very well, the best wines on a par with the stellar 2015, with no signs of greenness. Hermitage also performed strongly, with some mighty, sumptuous reds. Cornas too, though some are almost too rich and potent in 2017.
But the star appellation in 2017 is St-Joseph.
Across the Northern Rhône, whites are significantly less successful, often lacking acidity and focus, but there are some exceptional white wines in a broad, full-bodied style if you buy with care.
Read Matt’s individual commune reports and top buys below
Another excellent year in Côte-Rôtie, not as consistent as the stellar 2015 vintage but the top wines are stunning and will last even longer.
Pierre Rostaing at Domaine Rostaing describes his 2017s as ‘structured, dense, with good concentration – all we needed to make good wines for the cellar.’
Compared to the 2015 vintage, 2017 is just as ripe, but more savoury and occasionally a little darker in fruit. Some have been pushed a little too far, with overextraction and overoaking making certain wines heavy going.
Some will drink young, but others will close down for a protracted period – as always, take note of the drinking windows.
It was a challenging year for Condrieu producers. Domaine Georges Vernay lost around half its crop due to a combination of a cold spring, coulure and drought. Yves Gangloff lost 60%.
The small crop ripened quickly, often with potential alcohol levels running ahead of phenolic ripeness – resulting in some grapes being picked before the flavours were fully developed, and some wines show unbalanced alcohol.
Most wines are very full-bodied this year, some with unconvincing acidity – stylistically similar to 2015. The best wines are very good, combining opulence with focus.
After the disastrous hail of 2016, Jean-Louis Chave reports an easier growing season in 2017, resulting in ‘friendly, soft and lush’ wines that he compares to 2007 or 2000. Michel Chapoutier chooses 1995 as a comparison.
2017 is clearly a very good year, tannic and powerful. Excessive oak influence is still an issue but is gradually becoming less so. The whites are even more rich and lavish than normal in 2017, but where levels of acidity and oak are in balance it can work well, resulting in a particularly lux style of Hermitage blanc.
After the lush 2015s and the sprightly 2016s, 2017 is far less consistent in Crozes. The vintage has lent itself to powerful, long-lived, tannic wines and those aren’t always characteristics that play to its strengths.
Some producers have harnessed the year to produce striking wines with remarkable depth of fruit and interest. But choose carefully, as there are plenty of overripe, overextracted examples that lack freshness. The reds are better than the whites, which – with some notable exceptions – tend towards being flabby.
It was a very good vintage in Cornas, reminiscent of 2015 or 2009. The wines are just as concentrated but with marginally firmer tannins.
Pierre Clape recalled a season that saw some coulure on the best sites and hot, arid conditions leading to a very early harvest that ripened ‘like a train’, jumping from 12.8% potential alcohol one week to 14.5% the next.
Some of the wines are a little heady as a result, but most are also endowed with intense fruit, bright acidity and hefty tannic frames, which bring an overall sense of balance.
It’s rarely considered the source of the finest wines, but for me this year the star of the vintage in the Northern Rhône is St-Joseph.
As Michel Chapoutier says, ‘St-Joseph has the biggest hidden potential in the Rhône Valley.’ It’s a large appellation, but there are outcrops of outstanding terroir and very old vines which, in the right hands, can be the source of brilliant wines.
Use of stems appears to be more widespread this year, and when done well can be beneficial to both aroma and structure.
It’s also a relatively good bet for white wines in 2017 – they’re rich but often display more precision than their neighbours. In a vintage like this, St-Joseph is home to some of the best value wines in France.
It may be a fairly lavish vintage in St-Péray, but it’s also the home of some successful whites for devotees of an unashamedly profligate style.
The terroir is more favourable for whites than in Crozes, and winemakers here are accustomed to working with full-bodied, generous raw materials.
Inevitably in a vintage like this, some of the wines are heavy and overly viscous, but where winemakers have managed to rein in its worst excesses and retain focus and drinkability, the wines are delicious in an early-drinking style.
M Chapoutier, L'Ermite Blanc, Hermitage, Rhône, France 2018
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M Chapoutier, Le Méal, Hermitage, Rhône, France, 2017
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Decanter's Rhône coresspondent, and DWWA Regional Chair for the Rhône.
Matt Walls is an award-winning freelance wine writer and consultant, contributing regular articles to various print and online titles including Decanter, where he is a contributing editor. He has particular interest in the Rhône Valley; he is chair of the Rhône panel at the Decanter World Wine Awards and is the owner of travel and events company www.rhoneroots.com.
