Bordeaux 2017: Top Wines
Last week we looked at the 2017 vintage as a whole and compared the average Global Wine Score of the vintage with other vintages going back to 2005. Today, we continue our analysis of the 2017 Bordeaux vintage by looking at the top scoring red, white and sweet wines.
2017 Top Red Wines
Chateau Lafleur is the top scoring red wine of 2017 with a Global Wine Score of 96.98, just barely coming in above Petrus with a score of 96.89. Our data shows that critics favored the Right Bank this year, with 4 of the top 5 wines coming from the Pomerol and Saint-Émilion Grand Cru appellations. This represents a switch from 2016, where the top 3 wines were from the Left Bank and Petrus and Chateau Lafleur were ranked 4th and 5th respectively. The top score awarded this year is also 2.15 points below the top score awarded in 2016, highlighting the challenges with frost in the 2017 vintage. However, despite these challenges, many excellent wines were made and our top 20 wines all scored over 95 points.
2017 Top Dry White Wines
As we reported in our first analysis of the vintage, the average score for the dry white wines was the highest of any vintage in our analysis going back to 2005. Chateau Haut Brion earned the highest marks this year with a Global Wine Score of 96.15. It was also the top scoring dry white in 2016, with a score of 95.48.
2017 Top Sweet White Wines
This was also an excellent vintage for sweet white wines, with average scores just above 2016 and just below 2014 and 2015. Chateau d’Yquem claimed the top spot in 2017 once again, with a Global Wine Score of 97.3. In 2016, Chateau d’Yquem earned a nearly identical score of 97.31.
Conclusions
Our ranking of red wines suggests that 2017 was a right bank vintage, at least when looking at the top Bordeaux producers. While the scores are not as high as the recent 2016 and 2015 vintages, the top producers still made excellent wines. Dry and sweet white wines performed very well this year and the rankings are similar to other recent vintages. You can view the complete 2017 rankings on our website along with rankings for past vintages.
Our next post in the Bordeaux 2017 series will look at the scores across each appellation and classification to help you narrow your search for great wines during the en primeur campaign. You can also try our en primeur price tool to compare wine scores and prices to help you find great value wines.
See our complete series on the 2017 Bordeaux vintage here.
