"94 Points, Neal Martin, Vinous.com
The 2017 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru has a well-defined, quite floral bouquet of red currant, cranberry and light stony aromas, displaying pleasing transparency despite a very small reduction. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, fleshy and nicely poised, with a finessed, detailed, precise finish. Understated, yet there is intensity here. Excellent. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2017 tasting.
Drinking Window 2024 - 2044
90-93 Points, Allen Meadow's Burghound.com
Moderate wood surrounds the aromas of poached pear, rosemary oil and more discreet floral elements. There is fine density and evident power to the succulent and sappy larger-bodied flavors that are supported by a firm acid spine on the sneaky long and well-balanced finale. This is also very good with equally good development potential."
Allen Meadow's Burghound.com
As is usually the case, I met with Véronique Drouhin who noted that the 2017 growing season "was much less eventful than its 2016 counterpart though this is not to say that we didn't have some drama, mostly from a late April frost scare. And instead of the heavy mildew pressure we endured last year, we did have a significant attack of bud eating caterpillars that cost us some yield. While it's hard to estimate with precision, it was probably around 10% of the potential crop. [Known in Burgundy as mange bourgeons or literally, bud eaters.] Otherwise the season was clement and calm and the healthy yields were able to ripen without difficulty. Despite this the véraison was extended and this made harvesting tricky as each parcel had to be picked precisely when it was perfectly ripe. Thankfully the weather conditions in early September were ideal and just as importantly they held all the way to the end of what was an extended harvest for us. The fruit was super-clean and notably ripe with better volumes in red than white. We used a bit more whole clusters than usual because as I noted the fruit was clean and ripe with good phenolic maturities. One aspect of the 2017s that is worthy of note is how much they changed before and after the malos and I thought that they really improved. Moreover, the malos did not unduly degrade the acidities so there is good freshness and energy to the wines. For us at Drouhin, 2017 produced classically styled reds that are good to very good but I would describe the whites as genuinely great." I agree with Drouhin in terms of her description of the 2017s and overall I found the quality here to be impressive and particularly so among the big houses.
