Patrick Piuze

Patrick Piuze makes Chablis, and he is one of the names people who know the appellation put forward. Jamie Goode lists him among his recommended Chablis producers, and William Kelley of the Wine Advocate scored the 2022 Bougros at 93+. He is not an old family domaine with a château and a crest; he is a working producer with his own label, and he makes wine right across the Chablis hierarchy, from village level up to Grand Cru.

Chablis itself is worth explaining, because it is the reason his wines taste the way they do. It sits well north of the rest of Burgundy, on its own and a long way from the Côte d'Or, and it grows one grape, Chardonnay, on Kimmeridgian limestone and marl that is packed with the fossilised shells of a small oyster called Exogyra virgula. That fossil bed is what people mean when they talk about minerality in Chablis. There are four appellations: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru. The Grands Crus are a single hillside on the right bank of the Serein, north-east of the town, running between 100 and 250 metres, and there are only 99 hectares of it in production, divided into seven named climats: Blanchot, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Preuses, Valmur and Vaudésir. Everything else in Chablis, thousands of hectares of it, sits outside those 99.

What draws me to his wines is that they are put together to show the site rather than the cellar. Terroir de la Chapelle, his village wine, never goes near a barrel: it is fermented and aged in tank, so there is nothing standing between you and the limestone. If what you are after is the oak-and-butter style of Chardonnay you will not find it here, and that is better known before you open the bottle than after.

Two of his wines sit at opposite ends of what he does.

Chablis Terroir de la Chapelle comes from a plot on the plateau on the left bank of the Serein, opposite Fourchaume, from vines planted in 1974. The rows run east to west, so the fruit is shaded and picked fresh, and the wine is fermented and aged in tank with no oak at all. It is village Chablis made with real care and it is a genuinely good introduction to the house.

Chablis Grand Cru Bougros comes from vines planted in 1956 on the upper part of Bougros, which is one of the seven Grand Cru climats. It is the serious bottle of the two, and the gap in price is the gap between village Chablis and one of only 99 hectares of Grand Cru.

He makes very little of any one wine, and the allocations move around from year to year.