This year a shortage of time only allowed me the opportunity to taste eleven wines from Pomerol that were shown at the Grand Cercle event in April, along with a few others with Jean-Luc Thunevin. In May I had the opportunity to taste Château Gazin, which was wonderfully pure and strong. Overall, it’s been difficult to draw firm conclusions on such a small sample, but the wines I’ve tasted from Pomerol certainly show plenty of joyful, ripe fruit and considerable style. The wines were generally low in acidity. Again, as in St Emilion, to me they didn’t have the delightful tension of the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with 2018 seemingly much more akin to 2009 in style. If there is a flaw, it is that the wines lack acidity. That said, many will provide immediately pleasure and this doesn’t feel like a vintage that will need much time in bottle.

I missed out tasting many of the big guns in Pomerol in 2017. The sixteen that I did taste at the Grand Cercle and elsewhere felt fresh, elegant and mid-weight. Overall they were not as plump and enticing as the wines produced in the excellent 2015 and 2016 vintages in Pomerol. They were evidently handled well in the cellar nevertheless. Generally the wines seemed unforced and balanced. My picks? Château Beauregard, Château Feytit-Clinet, Château La Clémence, Château Mazeyres, Château Maillet, Château Le Moulin, Château Nénin, Château Vray Croix de Gay and Le Clos du Beau-Père particularly impressed among the relatively limited number I tasted. Evidently Merlot suffered from the frost in particular in Pomerol. The Cabernet Franc appears to have come to the rescue, resulting in the finesse and elegance found in many of the samples. I hope to taste more Pomerols on forthcoming trips to the region.

I used to save the best to last. When I first started visiting the cellars of Jean-Luc Thunevin I’d turn up at the end of primeurs week. What a fool I was. Now it’s the first place I head to in St Emilion. It was interesting hearing Jean-Luc’s thoughts on the 2017 vintage. In places unaffected by frost, on the best terroirs he reckons it’s the equivalent to 2014 and even 2015 in places. Importantly Château Valandraud itself was not affected by the late April freeze. Other properties that Thunevin advises were, including some of his own properties such as Clos Badon in St Emilion and Le Clos du Beau Père in Pomerol. If volumes are down, in many cases quality is good to very good, judging from the wines tasted in Thunevin’s cellars. I love the energy that he manages to generate in his own wines and for Valandraud fans [read Jean-Luc fans] his 2017s do not disappoint. 

Many of the red wines tasted during my visit to Bordeaux this April had freshness, engaging aromas, juicy fruit flavours, reasonable depth and generally soft tannins. On this basis 2017 is surely a good vintage? Well yes. For the best properties we’re talking of wines with elements of 2014, 2012 and 2008, possibly a combination of all three in certain places. Things are more exciting for the whites [it looks to be a brilliant year] and Sauternes too has excelled again. But these generalisations hide a somewhat heterogeneous vintage.