Port 2017: Vintage guide and what to buy

Port 2017

A magnificent vintage, hard on the heels of 2016. Rich, intense, powerful fruit-driven wines balanced by unusual freshness and verve.

5/5

When I broached the selection of early-released 2017 Port, I fully expected to see all the hallmarks of a hot vintage. This was, after all, the earliest harvest in living memory, with picking taking place at the end of August.

By the time the harvest normally begins (the closest Monday to 21 September is my rule of thumb), all the best grapes were in and it seemed as that yet another exceptional year was on the cards.I emphasise ‘another’, because the widely declared 2017 vintage followed hard on the heels of the general declaration of 2016 and, for some shippers, a declaration in 2015 as well.

Scroll down to see Richard’s Port 2017 tasting notes & scores

It’s rare to get back-to-back vintage declarations – for some houses you have to go back to 1934/35 (Fonseca for example) but for others, not since 1846/47 have two generally-declared Port vintages come one after the other.

For Cockburn, who benefitted from a successful harvest in 2015, this is an unprecedented third declared vintage in a row.

A succession of years like this leads one’s thoughts towards climate change and global warming. There may of course be something in this, as there hasn’t been a dreary vintage in the Douro since 2002 and no really poor year since 1993.

More often than not, excess heat is the problem but this wasn’t an overriding factor in 2017. After a wet end to 2016, the growing season started about a week earlier than usual, with budburst taking place around 10 March.

The spring was exceptionally warm and dry, with a blast of heat in late June. After a major storm on 5 July the weather calmed down, which helped to even out the ripening. By mid-August, growers were being called back from their holidays and by 25 August picking was well underway, nearly a month earlier than normal.

Drought

The weather conditions in 2017 were the driest since 1945, a legendary Port vintage with which the shippers are already making a direct comparison.

Thankfully, the Douro’s grape varieties are particularly drought resistant, and deep-rooted old vines produced tiny yields of super-ripe grapes in 2017, 30% down on a normal year – the Symingtons reported yields averaging just 860 grams per vine (compared to the 1.08kg 10-year average).

But even the more recently planted Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca vineyards performed exceptionally well, the latter resisting the drought on sun-drenched south-facing slopes.

Not many of us have memories of the 1945 vintage though, so what of the back-to-back vintages of 2016/17?

Declarations

All the leading shippers declared both years with the exception of Sandeman and Ferreira, who passed on 2017 (‘too hot’ said the two brands’ winemaker, Luís Sottomayor), and Niepoort and Ramos Pinto who both favoured 2015 over 2016. The shippers are clear that 2017 is at least equal in stature to its immediate predecessor but very different in style.

In a joint statement at the launch of their wines, Adrian Bridge (Taylor, Fonseca, Croft), Johnny Symington (Cockburn, Dow, Graham, Warre, Quinta do Vesúvio) and Christian Seely (Quinta do Noval) said that whereas ‘the hallmarks of the 2016s were elegance and finesse, the 2017s are classic “old school” vintage Ports, deep and intense, with rich, dark multi-layered fruit and powerful, compact tannins’.

I would add to this by saying that there is nothing ‘hot’, ‘baked’ or ‘stewed’ about the wines from 2017. The impression these wines give at this stage is of ripeness and concentration backed by wonderful freshness. It’s not often that I use the word ‘acidity’ in association with Port but it is implicit in my notes, such is the fresh and mouthwatering character of many of these wines.

Johnny Graham (Churchill) sums this up when he talks about ‘a raw vibrancy….combining a purity of fruit with a vein of natural acidity’, while Dirk Niepoort – who compares his eponymous 2017 to 1945, 1955 and 1970 – sums it up in one word: ‘balance’.

Lucky number?

As Adrian Bridge pointed out to the assembled wine trade and wine writers at the recent launch of the 2017 Port vintage in London, seven has a habit of being a lucky number for the Port trade.

There’s some truth in this. Going back exactly a decade, 2007 was generally declared, as was 1997. The 1987 vintage was good but only declared by a few shippers (a long story), then 1977 was declared by all except Cockburn.

1967 proved to be a good year, declared by some in preference to 1966 (notably Cockburn), then you go back another 20 years to 1947, an outstanding year declared hard on the heels of 1945 at a time when there was really no market for vintage Port.

Then there’s 1927, perhaps the finest vintage of the 20th century. Perhaps 2017 is already shaping up to be one of the finest years of the 21st century but there’s already stiff competition from 2000, the universally declared 2011s, and 2016. This gives plenty of scope for fascinating comparisons around dinner tables in about 25 years time or more – I have put some of the drink dates up to 2060, but I’m sure that these wines will last beyond this.

Port 2017: Richard’s top recommendations

The following wines are my own selection of the best and most representative Ports of the 2017 vintage. Over the months of May and June I tasted over 40 vintage Ports, mostly on two or three occasions before finally rating the wines. Where possible I have given background details on each of the wines as well as tasting notes.

You may also like:

Decanter’s Port vintage guide

Port 2016: Vintage report and top releases

Revisiting vintage Port 1994: From the archive

Tasting Quinta do Noval Port: A look back in time