Patrick Piuse Chablis

This photo shows 11 of the 15 Chablis I tasted from Patrick Piuse. He is a Canadian who gained his experience overseas before opening his winery in Chablis in 2008. You can see he is a traditionalist, opting for cork and wax as the closure, but he also did something revolutionary, as he separated the standard Chablis in a number of single vineyards. This makes a lot of sense, as the soil on the eastern side of the river is limestone, which brings out herbal character and minerality in the Chardonnay, whereas the 'left bank' is clay, and the Chardonnay expresses more fruit here, in particular apple and apricot. This distinction gets lost in a mixed wine.

The 2014 vintage is regarded as 'classic'. It was quite cool, and the wines show the steeliness and acidity many associate with Chablis. I was impressed with the 2014 Terroir de Chichee and the 2014 Terroir Decouverte, which expressed this particularly well. These wines are perfect as aperitif or with oysters. All the wines see oak, but the vessels are quite old and did not depart any noticeable oak flavours.

I will not go through all the wines, as they are hard to get. In general, I felt the quality increase in the premium and grand cru wines, if any, does not justify the price jumps. The standard wines are very good indeed. Amongst the grand crus, the 2014 Blanchots stood out with its elegance, balance and length on the palate.

Overall, this is an interesting producer, worth searching out.