For today's Wine-Searcher tasting our Wine Director, David Allen MW, tastes the third of a trio of wines from one of Chablis' new stars, Thomas Pico and his Domaine Pattes Loup. Today's wine is Thomas Pico's Domaine Pattes Loup Chablis Premier Cru Butteaux from the 2019 vintage.
Domaine Pattes Loup is one of the most exciting estates to emerge in the Chablis in the last 20 years. Pattes Loup means "wolf’s paws" and the name refers to the name of a plot of Village level Chablis the domaine owns. Thomas Pico started this tiny estate in the village of Courgis, about 2 miles south west of the town of Chablis, in 2005. He inherited 2.4 hectares of vines from his grandfather and was given another 8 hectares by his father. Thomas was highly motivated to make his mark and take a qualitative leap forward - he immediately began a program of strict yield restriction and the process of converting the management of his vineyards to organic & biodynamic viticulture. The approach is rare in the Chablis region as the climate is relatively inhospitable and extreme diligence is necessary.
Most of Thomas's vines are, fully mature, many being selection massale plantings made by his grandfather on hillside sites near Courgis and Preys (the two highest altitude villages in the appellation) with vineyards up to 300 meters high, making these two of Chablis highest altitude villages. Kimmeridgian, limestone, and rich clay soils dominate.
A distinguishing feature of Thomas' winemaking is his total commitment to hand-picking, followed by careful manual sorting at the winery to remove unripe or imperfect berries using a vibrating sorting table. All his fermentations are initiated with ambient yeasts. He gives the wines a 14-16 month period aging with their lees and bottles then without fining or filtration and with very low levels of SO2. A portion of his wines ferment concrete-egg fermenters with the balance in stainless steel.
His Premier Cru wines are all aged in seasoned oak.
To find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website:
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2 сен 2024
