A generous vintage
Light frosts in April came close to destroying the buds in the vineyard once more. Only the plateaus north-west of Chinon suffered severe damage. Fortunately, the vines in Cravant were spared.
Later in spring the weather was particularly fine and warm. Ample rainfall in May did not affect blooming, which was early (around May 28), and relatively even.
Temperatures got higher in late August and the weather stayed nice and sunny despite a little rain early in September.
So we had a very early harvest and the first grapes were clipped on September 20 for the Cabernet Franc and September 14 for the Chenin! Ripeness was quite even and sorting in the vineyards was easy due to the quality of the grapes.
2017 is a generous vintage in several respects. First of all, the yields in Cravant were back to normal. The loss in the western areas of Chinon amounted to 20 per cent of a normal harvest. We rarely fill the wine-press with our Chenin, but the 2017 yields were quite interesting, with lovely clusters.
Finally, the generosity of the 2017 vintage is conveyed by fruit-forward, enjoyable red wines with soft tannins. The wines in our range are easy to identify thanks to the diversity of our terroirs and can be enjoyed young. Yet these wines are rich; 2017 was a warm year and sometimes reminds us of the lovely 2009 vintage.
It isn’t easy to speculate on the ageing potential of the full-bodied wines in this vintage; and they’re so easy to drink, soon after bottling, that one could be tempted not to wait.