Patrick Piuze Chablis 2008 and 2009
Arlequin Wine Merchant, San Francisco, California
Tasted Thursday, March 3, 2011 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,122 views
Introduction
Patrick Piuze is a new negociant producer in Chablis who has received quite a bit of media attention already--including reports by Eric Asimov in the New York Times and Jancis Robinson in her Purple Pages--even though he's only produced two vintages so far. He also has major international distribution already--in the U.S., Hong Kong and elsewhere--which is impressive for a new operation like this. Arlequin Wine Merchant hosted a tasting with Patrick recently, and since I'm a Chablis lover, and very interested in the newer producers that have been popping up in Chablis in the last several years, I made it a point to attend.
Patrick, a Québécois, moved to Burgundy in 2000 after running a wine bar in Montreal for two years. He first worked harvest with Olivier Leflaive before attending the CFPPA in Beaune. He was then put in charge of vinification of Chablis at Olivier Leflaive, where he stayed for four years. He spent a year at Verget working with Jean-Marie Guffens before being recruited by Jean-Marc Brocard to be Brocard's cellar master and head winemaker. He left Brocard to produce Chablis under his own name with the '08 vintage.
Patrick has identified older vine parcels in virtually all the Grand Cru vineyards, nine of the 40 Premier Cru vineyards, and village level vineyards, which he now manages. He hand picks the grapes from these parcels and vinifies them. He uses temperature controlled steel tanks for the fermentation, and then raises the wines in neutral old barrels and foudres. I appreciate the use of neutral oak instead of stainless steel for elevage, as I tend to find a high and off-putting degree of reduction on Chablis that has been raised in stainless steel (e.g., Brocard's). Instead of blending his village level grapes, as most negociants do, he produces four cuvées at the villages level, each cuvée being named after the village in which the grapes are grown. In this tasting, we got to taste the '08 and '09 editions of one of those village cuvées, the Terroirs de Chichée. (Brocard also produces village level cuvées.)
I was particularly impressed with Patrick's wines from the '08 vintage, which is a Chablis vintage I've been generally enjoying, for its good acidities and minerality. The one Grand Cru '08 we tasted, the Bougros, was quite good. I found his '09s to be much riper and less typical of Chablis, but I believe that's the nature of the '09 vintage in Chablis. Patrick himself is young, enthusiastic and engaging. Here's a brief video clip of him talking about the vessels used to raise the wines. [The video clip can be seen on my blog, http://www.rjonwine.com ]
Flight 1 - Villages level (2 Notes)
Flight 2 - Premier Crus (4 Notes)
Flight 3 - Grand Cru (2 Notes)
2009 Patrick Piuze Chablis Terroir de Chichée 89 Points
France, Burgundy, Chablis
Pale green-tinged yellow color; nice tart apple, tart lime, white flower nose; tight, tasty, tart citrus, mineral, tart apple palate with medium acidity; medium-plus finish
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2008 Patrick Piuze Chablis Terroir de Chichée 89 Points
France, Burgundy, Chablis
Light lemon yellow color; ripe lemon, tart yellow apple nose; tangy, tart lemon, tart orange palate with juice and medium acidity; medium-plus finish
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