La Paulée 2020 Grand Tasting of 2017 Burgundy

Pier 60, New York
Tasted Saturday, March 7, 2020 by drwine2001 with 689 views

Introduction

This was a fabulous Grand Tasting that featured much of the crême de la crême of Burgundy, with both well established and up and coming producers richly represented. Bravo Daniel Johnnes for assembling a great program and for 20 years of the U.S. version of La Paulée.

I tasted through about half of the wines being offered, skipping many fine bottles and producers so that I could focus on the domains and cuvées that interested me most, so this is hardly an unbiased, random sample. When possible, I've tried to supplement my spur of the moment impressions with other experiences with these wines over the years. Finally, and without apology, I concentrated on Premier and Grand Cru wines for the sake of pacing and minimizing palatal fatigue.

Flight 1 (83 Notes)

Closing

So, what did I learn about 2017 from tasting 80+ wines? A lot, I think! As a gross generalization, I walked away more favorably impressed than I expected to be, but the assessment of whites versus reds differed. For the whites, based upon what I had heard and tasted previously, I expected a replay of 2014. It is not that, with lower acidity (nothing hurt my mouth) and a different quality to the fruit, at times more apple than classic citrus, especially in the Chablis. The upside is that the wines as a group are well made, tender, friendly early on, and just delicious. While the heights don't seem quite as high as 2014 and the wines don't quite have the intensity of the very best years, bottles like the Colin-Morey Corton Charlemagne reminded me of the creamy concentration and beautiful balance of some 2010's, high praise indeed.

On the red side, I went into the tasting with a mindset of 2007. This was wrong and grossly underestimates the most recent vintage that ends with a 7. 2017 reds are generally tender but hardly meager. Maybe 2014 is a more apt comparison, but I think as a rule, the acidity in 2017 is a little lower, there is less green, and the ripeness is significantly greater, at times surprisingly so. Very few wines were difficult to taste and cranky; several of the Vogüé wines provided the exception to this rule. Red fruit rules the day; you didn't often note wines being what I'd call "blackward" with the searing combination of lean black fruit and strapping tannins. In short, the winemaking standard amongst this elite group of producers is extremely high. The reds are clean and for the most part, more gently extracted than in the past, and most of these should have a enjoyably broad window of short term and intermediate drinkability.

Thus, from the skewed vantage point of tasting wines from some of the best producers, 2017 has turned out very well, turning out a slew of above average whites and reds, and a smaller number of wines in both colors that are even better than this. Despite the daunting number of wines to taste, going through them was 3 well spent hours of Burgundy pleasure.

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