Piuze’s 2008 Chablis Blanchots smells of ocean breeze, fresh lime, as well as fusil, smoky emanations as if from crushed chalk. Pronouncedly mineral on the palate, it at the same time exhibits a succulence of grapefruit and white peach that goes beyond the other wines in its collection. A slightly lactic note dissipated after the bottle had been open for a few hours. And while this might not finish with real succulence, it offers a startlingly pungent and piquant burst of fresh lime, cherry, peach, cherry pit, and tenaciously persistent maritime mineral character. A real essence of Kimmeridgian terroir, I would not be surprised to see this prove worth following for a decade.
Quebecois Patrick Piuze has followed a repeatedly-traveled path, having struck out on his own after working as cellarmaster for Brocard (and before that he worked for Olivier Leflaive, followed by Verget). Tasting his 2008s offers striking reminders of just how much unrealized potential there is in Chablis, when one considers the number of very recent start-ups (granted, the bulk market for 2008s was a buyer’s); that the twelve wines I tasted here constitute only a bit over half of Piuze’s portfolio; and above all in view of the high quality he has achieved in his inaugural vintage. Piuze follows as well a by now familiar micro-negociant formula that is “micro” in matters of management even if not in terms of total production: he exercises whatever he feels are the necessary controls to insure that the fruit he purchases can fulfill his ideals of style and terroir character, which involve fermentation exclusively in steel or cement vessels and maturation in tank and previously-used, often large-format barrels. Class distinctions here are quite subtle, with a seamless transition from some startlingly fine village-level wines through the crus. (For the record, the 2008 bottlings I did not taste are: Petit Chablis and the crus Butteaux, Foret; Montmains, Montee de Tonnerre, Vaillons, Bougros, Grenouilles, Valmur, and Vaudesir!)
Various importers, including: Aliane Wines, La Jolla, CA; tel. (858) 361-4529 and David Bowler Wine, New York, NY; (212) 807-1680
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