Back to Burgfest: 2017 Whites – Blind

BY NEAL MARTIN | AUGUST 10, 2021

Bourgogne Blanc finds itself at a crossroads. On one hand, many uphold it as the apotheosis of Chardonnay. Every young Chardonnay grows up dreaming of becoming a Montrachet, even the knights and bastards close by. On the other hand, many regions now produce their own outstanding Chardonnays. Competition has never been more fierce, and never have there been so many alternatives. There are some appellations where white Burgundy remains a good value, but the ineluctable fact is that many wines are now out of reach for the majority of consumers. White Burgundy has always repaid cellaring and yet premature oxidation has sometimes led even its most fervent admirers to offload their collections and vow never to touch the wines again. Some winemakers tackle this by controlled oxidation of free-run juice, while others strive to keep it green ’n’ clean. Some growers, including top names, have introduced Diam closures, but others remain loyal to cork. White Burgundy has had to contend with global warming, predicating wines with low acidities bereft of terroir expression, yet paradoxically, warm summers seem to have concentrated acidities so that the wines remain balanced and fresh. Some growers have responded by harvesting early, to the point where the earliest pickers gain some kind of bragging rights, whilst others argue this “race” has gone too far, resulting in anemic white Burgundy without phenolics or substance.

The furcation of approaches and techniques among white Burgundy winemakers is no bad thing (producers should not act like a shoal of fish darting off in one direction, as is the tendency in Bordeaux, where you have to queue up in your local supermarket for a must-have clay amphora). It does mean that a comprehensive tasting of over 200 white Premier and Grand Crus white Burgundy comes at an intriguing juncture. This year, the 2017 vintage was up for assessment, postponed from last year due to the pandemic. The whites were well received from barrel, one of the best vintages in recent years and the last where above-average temperatures bore some semblance to previous growing seasons, prior to global warming changing meteorological presets to establish the “new normal.” So how are they shaping up? 

Tasting at Le Hameau de Barboron. Numbers were depleted this year due to travel restrictions.

The Growing Season

For a detailed summary of the 2017 growing season in Burgundy, I refer readers to my original report on Vinous, 2017 Burgundy: A Modern Classic. To adumbrate, it was actually a relief for growers to enjoy a season that was not a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. After the trauma of the frost-afflicted 2016 vintage, the vines’ survival instincts kicked in and they produced good quantities of fruit in the following year. After a cool and dry winter, February and March were slightly warmer. At the end of March, temperatures increased rapidly, thus expediting the growth cycle and fostering anxiety about another frost episode. Temperatures fell on April 18 and 19, affecting Chablis but not the Côte d’Or, a factor when it comes to comparing the performances in those two regions. Temperatures plummeted again toward the end of that month, but the damage was not as severe as in 2016. Flowering passed evenly with little coulure or millerandage. Clement weather settled in from the end of June. With potentially high yields, some growers opted to green harvest, while others decided to prune back hard earlier in the season. There were no heat spikes in August, but some younger vines suffered hydric stress, the showers in mid-August quenching parched throats. Much of the Chardonnay was picked from the end of August under ideal sanitary conditions.

The Tasting

Burgfest is a unique tasting that I have been privileged to attend for almost a decade. To taste over 200 Premier and Grand Crus blind, grouped by climat, affords an unparalleled insight into a vintage. It is an exercise that demands total concentration because, as much as I like to think that I’m the one assessing the wines, in fact the wines are assessing me. Tasting with a small group of seasoned merchants and writers, half of them MWs, and listening to their observations and comparing them with my own, is an invaluable means of improving my own palate and thinking outside the box.