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Franck Balthazar

Franck Baltahazar told me he finds that "2018 is the complete opposite of 2017. There's more elegance, and the wines are less massive, with less dark personality." He attributes that mostly to the low yields that growers suffered in 2017, which in his case meant around 20hl/ha, as opposed to the normal 30 to 32. "Low yields can mean too much concentration," he pointed out, "and get in the way of harmony and finesse." Those numbers are similar to what Balthazar harvested in 2016, by the way, but he finds the 2016s to be less massive and showing better structure than the 2017s when they were at a similar age. He added that he considers 2016 to be “a great, serious vintage, even the equal of 2010 but with a more delicate touch.” In a vintage like 2017 and 2018, for that matter, I welcome Balthazar's light approach.

From 2017 and 2018 Northern Rhône (Jul 2019) by Josh Raynolds

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2017 Cornas Chaillot

Color: Red

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