This was a year that started well, but flowering was somewhat drawn out and crop management, particularly bunch thinning over the summer, was a very important quality factor. February was warm and humid, as was most of March. We were nervous about our crops, but decided to wait and keep the canopies very open. We then had a prolonged Indian Summer of dry, warm weather, enabling us to harvest grapes without pressure. Our practice of hand harvesting our crops meant that bunches/berries of lesser quality could be omitted, so that for us vintage ’97 was one of small crops of high quality, giving wines with lifted aromatics, pronounced ripe berry flavours, and long palates. The wines are elegant, a word not being used as a euphemism for ‘light’, with great concentration and, in the case of the reds, fine and long tannin structures. We think they’re very good, but there are not large quantities of them.