Bordeaux 2017: First Impressions

Now that most critics have released their scores and wines are becoming available for purchase en primeur, let’s take a closer look at the 2017 Bordeaux vintage and see how it compares with other recent vintages for red, dry white, and sweet wines.

Red Wines

To analyze the red wines of the vintage, we looked at the average Global Wine Score for a selection of 160 wines including the Grands Crus Classé en 1855, Grand Cru Classés de Saint Emilion (A and B included), Crus Classés de Graves, Grands Pomerol, and some second wines. We computed the average Global Wine Score of these 160 wines for each vintage back to 2005. We also looked at the average Global Wine Score across a larger selection of 640 wines, including the 160 top wines, to get a broader picture of the vintage.

First, let’s look at the score trends for our selection of 160 Bordeaux wines. As you can see in the chart below, the average Global Wine Score for 2017 is 91.61. The 2017 vintage falls short of the excellent 2016 (93.23) and 2015 (92.7) vintages but still shows better than average performance when compared to all vintages since 2005. It also slightly outperforms both the 2014 and the 2005 vintages.

A slightly different story emerges when we look at the average scores of 640 red wines below, representing a wider variety of Bordeaux wines. This selection includes the 160 wines from the top producers, along with many wines from less prestigious Bordeaux appellations. When looking at these 640 wines, the average Global Wine Score for 2017 is 89.07. This vintage rates well below the 2016 (90.59) and 2015 (90.06) vintages, and just barely comes in above 2014 (88.98). It also falls just short of 2005, which scored an average of 89.27.

A comparison of the two charts highlights what the major critics have been reporting this season. While there were some fantastic wines produced in 2017, the quality is much more variable than in other recent vintages, especially outside of the top châteaux. Those looking to buy en primeur this year should keep this in mind when making their selections.

Dry White Wines

For our analysis of the 2017 dry white wines, we used a selection of 18 wines composed of the Crus Classés de Graves, other top Pessac-Léognan whites, and the white wines of some top châteaux on the left bank. When comparing the average Global Wine Score of the 2017 vintage with vintages back to 2005, we see that the 2017 vintage is the highest scoring vintage with an average Global Wine Score of 92.3. This is just barely higher than 2015, which had an average score of 92.08. Many critics praised the excellent dry whites in 2017, and our data support the conclusion that white wines were a favorite of critics this year. The high score may also indicate that quality was more consistent among the dry white wines than the red wines.

Sweet White Wines

Our analysis of the top 2017 sweet white wines is based on a selection of 23 wines, composed of the 1er and 2eme Grand Cru Classé as well as other top-rated sweet wines since 2005. The average Global Wine Score of the 2017 sweet wines was 92.06, coming in ahead of 2016 (91.93), and just behind 2015 (92.29) and 2014 (92.12). This supports the reports of many critics who claim that 2017 was an excellent vintage for sweet wines in Bordeaux. Similar to the dry white wines, this may also indicate that quality was more consistent among sweet wines than red wines.

Conclusion

The 2017 vintage was not without its challenges, but many excellent wines were made in each category. We saw in our analysis of the red wines that the top châteaux were able to produce some outstanding wines, but the quality was less reliable outside of this small circle. For the dry whites, it was an excellent vintage and critics scored it as the top vintage in recent years. Sweet white wines also performed quite well, rounding off 4 excellent vintages in a row.

Stay tuned as we continue our analysis of the 2017 vintage in the coming weeks where we will look closely at the top wines in each category, the best appellations, and some great value wines to purchase en primeur.

See our complete series on the 2017 Bordeaux vintage here.