Yesterday, former Wine Advocate reviewer Jeb Dunnuck published his En Primeur report on jebdunnuck.com. Dunnuck argues that “the finest wines represent an elegant, charming, and classic style of Bordeaux.” However, he describes 2017 as an “irregular vintage where consumers will need to be selective.”
Stylistically, Dunnuck compares the 2017s to the 2014s “with their pure, clean fruit, cooler-climate style, and approachable, yet straight characters” but calls 2014 much more consistent, quality-wise.
Further into the report, Dunnuck calls for Chateaux to drop their prices this year and suggests that attempts to keep prices in line with 2016 would be “ridiculous”. He continues: “Even if 2017 had been a truly great year, three solid campaigns in a row are hard for any consumer’s wallet.”
The only two reasons to buy this year, he says, are to guarantee availability, particularly where production volumes are low, or to request special formats.
Dunnuck’s top red of the vintage is Pavie: “If I had to pick one wine to be the wine of the vintage, at least at this early stage, it would be the 2017 Pavie… hats off to the Perse family for this incredible effort.”
A selection of his top scores are shown in the table below. You can find his full report at jebdunnuck.com and further scores on our critic scores page.
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