Frédéric Weber said that what was most difficult in 2017 was to choose the dates to harvest — some vineyards had hydric stress, others, not. But rain in early September unblocked vines and brought back the acidity. Harvesting began 4 September with Côte de Beaune; it began on the Côte de Nuits on 11 September and it finished there on 20 September. The grapes were in excellent health, so there was very little triage, only a little for grapes affected by the summer heat. Use of stems was a bit higher than usual: 15-20% on the Côte de Beaune and 25 to 40% on the Côte de Nuits. There was a cold maceration of 5-6 days for the wines.
Malo-lactic fermentations were relatively quick and all had finished by March.
For Monthélie and Volnay, the yields were limited by drought, but on the whole, this was the first vintage since 2011 that was near a normal yield.
I was bothered by some caramel taste in some of the wines, as noted below; if that goes away, I would score them higher. (Continue reading here.)