Rhône 2017: Full en primeur report

Rhône 2017 may be considered a rather inconsistent vintage but flashes of brilliance are still to be found, reports Matt Walls...

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

Southern Rhône 2017

A hot, dry year has resulted in a very good to excellent vintage of powerful, structured red wines, though sometimes overripe or with leathery tannins. Whites tend towards richness over freshness.

4/5

‘It’s a very good vintage, with flashes of greatness at both poles’

When we look back in ten years time, 2017 won’t be held in quite the same esteem as the exceptional 2015 and 2016 Rhône vintages – in quality terms it’s simply too erratic.

But here and now you’re not buying a vintage, you’re buying individual wines, and the best 2017s hit similar heights to the two previous years, albeit in a very different style.

The 2017s all share the impact of a parched summer, which has led to a rather inconsistent vintage.

Quick link: See all Rhône 2017 en primeur tasting notes & scores

‘It was dry, there was no rain,’ says Laurence Féraud at Domaine de Pegau in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. ‘The berries were really small, more like blackcurrants. Beautiful bunches, but so small.’

The drought impacted yields to some degree, but not as much as the coulure (poor fruit-set), hitting Grenache hard and, to a lesser extent, Viognier.

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Rhône 2017 en primeur reports:

Top scoring Rhône 2017 wines

Northern Rhône report

Southern Rhône report

Best value Rhône 2017 wines

Winemakers blessed with old vines on the right terroir have been able to turn the dry conditions and low yields to their advantage, making concentrated, powerful, ageworthy wines. Inevitably, however, some wines veer towards overripeness and tough tannins.

There are some good whites in both north and south, but these are relatively scarce this year – whether it’s better in the north or south is hard to call. It’s a very good vintage, with flashes of greatness at both poles, but generally speaking, 2017 is a vintage in which to buy top red wines from the best domaines.

Best Producers in 2017:

Northern Rhône

Domaine Les 4 Vents

Domaine Les Bruyères

M Chapoutier

Domaine JL Chave

Domaine Clape

Domaine Combier

Domaine Guy Farge

Ferraton Père & Fils

Domaine Pierre Gaillard

Domaine Gonon

Domaine Bernard Gripa

E Guigal

Domaine Jamet

Domaine Gaylord Machon

Domaine Stéphane Ogier

Domaine Christophe Pichon

Domaine Rostaing

Domaine Marc Sorrel

Domaine François Villard

Domaine Alain Voge

Southern Rhône

Domaine Alary

Domaine Beau Mistral

Domaine des Bernardins

Domaine Brusset

Domaine des Carabiniers

Domaine Combe Julière

Le Clos du Caillou

Domaine de L’Espigouette

Moulin de La Gardette

Château de Montfaucon

Château Rayas

Domaine Roger Sabon

Domaine Le Sang de Cailloux

Château St Roch

Domaine Vallot

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