Stopped by the LA version this week. I wasn’t a fan of the 2014s and people here really disagreed, but I have to say this was a pretty nice vintage from what I could taste.
Aside from the fact that we got a corked Gaffeliere as our first wine, and the poor pourer didn’t know and couldn’t tell, the wines were basically pretty good. A lot of the St Ems were way less overdone than some other years like 2009, which was a nice change. Many would reward aging, but I wouldn’t hesitate to open them now. That’s actually my take on most of them. The wines from Margaux were also quite nice for the most part. While some years are really tannic and chewy, and others produce wines that seem like they’re from Paso Robles, overall this seemed to be a much more balanced year.
Small vintage for many because they had a bad spring. But after that, most of the people said things were pretty good. So although the vintage is down in production, that’s maybe not a bad thing. And it’s not a vintage of the century either, so I’m thinking there may be some pretty nice buys.
My wife and I went to the San Francisco UGC last Friday. We stayed overnight in The City, so I was enjoying the wines and talking to friends more than doing any serious note taking. Talked to fellow WB’er Alan Rath and introduced myself to Roy Piper, and spent some time talking to him.
My favorites were both the Brane Cantenac and the Cantenac Brown, both Leoville’s, both Pichon’s, and Domaine De Chevalier from the Left Bank. The Canon-La-Gaffeliere, Beau-Sejour Becot and Clinet were my favorites from the Right Bank. Most of the Margaux showed well, except for the Malescot, at least to me. Others liked it better. La Tour Carnet and D’Armailhac were very nice for the price. I was really surprised with the Cantermerle, as it tasted more like a sweet Napa Cab than a Bordeaux. Suduiraut and Coutet were my favorite Sauternes, and the few whites that I had from Pessac were also very good. All in all it was a nice and very educational two hours.
I am told that they showed better in bottle than at the primers. Tarrifs will decimate what little demand there is, so almost certainly not a vintage we will see much of.
I attended the daytime UGC at Cipriani in NYC on MLK day and the 2017’s were varied in terms of quality with many of the wines registering on the elegant, medium bodied side of spectrum with higher acids but where you could also pickup on uneven ripening in many of the wines. I did feel as if several appellations faired better than others, namingly Saint Julien, Pessac and Pauillac but my favorite wines of the day were the sweet wines from Sauternes. WOTT was the 2017 Guiraud. Now will I buy any? And the answer to that question is a resounding no as the problem with this vintage IMHO isn’t so much the wines but the pricing of said wines and more specifically, the initial futures pricing of this vintage that was just too freaking high and then it got exacerbated by the current tariffs (25% on wines under 14%) and I am just left having a hard time understanding how this vintage is ever going to sell in the US!?! Take for example the 2017 Brane Cantenac that TW offered out on sale for $94.97/btl a week or so back but why would anyone in their right mind buy this when you can readily buy landed examples of the 2015 or 2016 Brane Cantenac for $20 less than the 2017 and both of which I would consider to be much, much better examples than the 2017. I think backfilling on landed examples is the name of the game