“WE FINISHED PICKING BEFORE THE FIRES ”
— TOD MOSTERO, HEAD WINEMAKER AT DOMINUS AND ULYSSES
So what is worth buying? It’ll pay to be selective when looking at 2017 bottles from Napa and Sonoma. Napa Valley red wines in particular are very different from what’s usually produced here. If you prefer full-bodied, fruitdriven wines with lots of ripeness, high alcohol and sweet tannins, you’ll probably be unhappy with many bottles. But there are still some worth buying and drinking, particularly if you like more balanced and fresh wines. I found numerous 2017 reds that I think are excellent quality.
I tasted about 1,100 wines from Northern California and many have a firmness and drinkability that’s attractive and intriguing.
The reds show an almost European character, focused on expressing their provenance and vintage, rather than a stylised personality that emphasises fruit concentration and tannin power. Those were features that were once identified with the best wines from the region, but times are changing.
The 2017 whites are quite opulent but also show tension. “The baby fat is not there in the 2017, so it made wine more European with more restrained and complex reds,” said Benoît Touquette, the French winemaker of Napa Valley’s Realm Cellars. “You talk about fire and heat, but then you have a super-fresh wine. It’s kind of weird.” Indeed, I expected to taste many overripe and over-made wines with “2017” on their labels; yet so many were balanced, fresh and refined, especially the Napa wines that comprised the majority of my tasting.
“People talk about fires in 2017, but we finished picking before the fires,” said Tod Mostero, head winemaker at Dominus and Ulysses, who made some lovely fresh reds. “It was the big heat spike over Labor Day that hurt us. The vines shut down.”
According to veteran winemaker Cathy Corison of Corison Vineyards, “2017 was very unique. It reminds me of 2002, which was fruit driven. 2017 was the most unique heat spike I’ve ever seen in my [42-year] career.”
“I had to make some tough decisions with the 2017,” said Chris Carpenter, the respected winemaker of La Jota Vineyard. “I bottled nothing from the fire, knowing what we know about ageing and the rest. I just couldn’t do it. I was heartbroken. It was one of the great vintages leading up to the fires. We tried everything to treat it, but it just wasn’t right.”
The memory of the fire and the heartbreak it caused will always be the story of the 2017 vintage. But we should also remember the excellent quality of so many wines made.
I’m going to happily uncork bottles in the future and toast everyone who got through the ordeal, especially the winemakers who managed to make great wines.