It takes almost a full year of everything going right to have a great harvest. During springtime, you worry about frost, during the summer you worry about heat spikes that damage the grapes. 2017 has been a very cruel year for most French wine growers. Unseasonably cold snaps and frosts that lasted throughout April caused massive loss to grape yields.
Vineyards throughout Bordeaux reported losses between 25 to 90 percent of their crops with the greatest damage done in the Right Bank region of Graves, St-Emillion, and Sauternes. To add insult to injury, some vineyards have reported the theft of their harvested grapes. Vineyards in Burgundy, Alsace and the Loire were not spared from massive losses and will have a serious decline in production.
However, there is a silver lining, while quantity has been down, the quality of what has been harvested is high making the 2017 vintage one to remember.
