Rhône 2017 – an overview of the south

It was all the right weather, but not necessarily in the right order, to misquote English comedian the late Eric Morecambe. One year on, the end results of the 2017 vintage in the southern Rhône are clearly of the highest potential quality, but in significantly restricted volume. 

The word potential is important, because while the weather produced grapes that were undoubtedly capable of creating fantastic wine, it was equally possible to spoil this potential, most often through over-extraction or overripeness, and possibly both. It could be...