Domaine Sylvain CATHIARD (Vosne-Romanée) -- 2017 Tasted from Barrel

Sébastien Cathiard said that 2017 was a much easier vintage for him than 2016. He began harvesting late, on 13 September, and finished on the 15th. The grapes were healthy and ripe, and he lacks only three barrels from a full cellar. The malic acidities here were low, with pH’s ranging from 3.46 to 3.58 and total acidities from 4.50 to 4.90. 

There was a little chaptalization here, between 0.5 and 1.0º, basically to extend fermentations, and alcohols are around 12.5 to 13.0º. 

Malo-lactic fermentations were slow, finishing between April and August. No whole clusters went into this vintage.

As I’ve earlier already mentioned, Vosne-Romanée and Chambolle-Musigny are the centers of the highest concentration of quality in the vintage, with the Vosne slope of Nuits-Saint-Georges not far behind. Cathiard’s brilliant 2017s stand as Exhibit A to that assertion. (Continue reading here.)