2021 Domaine Patrick Piuze, Bourgogne Tonnerre, Les Boutots, White Burgundy, France.
The light golden hued 2021 Bourgogne Tonnerre by winemaker Patrick Piuze is Chablis like and shows a chalky/stony personality with a steely charm and detailed layers of lime, white peach, green apple and pear fruits, along with hints of white flowers, saline, oyster shell, flint, citron oil and hazelnut, in a poised medium bodied wine. This Tonnerre AOC is made from 100% Chardonnay, sourced from a south-facing single-vineyard in the commune of Vaulicheres, just to the east of Chablis, in an area that is lesser known, but that has a good terroir for crisp mineral driven whites, as this Piuze version shows. Most all of the basic whites at Piuze are fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks to promote purity and capture the natural energy in his wines .In the cellar, Piuze’s fermentations are spontaneous with indigenous yeast and go at their own pace to dry. The winery says that these village level “Terroir” series wines are fermented and aged mostly in their stainless steel tanks that are not temperature controlled, while the Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines are fermented and aged in used barrels for ten months. While most cellars use a pneumatic press, Patrick uses a vertical one because, as he explains, he likes the initial blast of oxygen for the wines in hopes of preventing pre-mox later, a condition that has ruined many an old Burgundy, a way of thinking also espoused by Jean-Marc Roulot, of Meursault fame. All wines go through malo(s) naturally, which adds to the textural quality here, while still holding on to their backbone of acidity. In some years, Piuze notes, his fermentation(s) finish after two and a half weeks and in others, they last up to a full three months.
Patrick Piuze, who moved to Burgundy in 2000, is a Montreal native, has become a star talent in Chablis after having worked for some famous names, like Leflaive, Jean-Marc Brocard and Jean-Marie Guffens, before starting his own label back in 2008. Many critics consider Chablis the purest example of Chardonnay showing the best transparency and terroir with intense acidity and mineral layers with a slight flinty spice and a light pale hue that can seem to have slight greenish tint. Without question Chablis reputation is still growing and it’s fortunes rising, with exciting new producers making waves with names like Piuze, Savary and Chistophe becoming the next generation of super stars, following such legends as Raveneau, Dauvissat and Fevre! The Chablis AOC White Burgundy classification began in 1938 and covers about 4,800 hectares of vines with AC, Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru sites and newer still is non Cru single vineyard or proprietary cuvee wines. Chablis is a cool climate terroir with unique Kimmeridgian soils with clay, limestone and river stones, the main Grand Cru area occupies a single small southwest facing slope just north of the town of Chablis itself. This historic Burgundy area has been around since the mid 15th century with most of the wine being shipped to England, but the area was razed by the Huguenots in 1568 and was slow to rebuild it’s importance, it regained it’s glory in the late 1800’s only to be hit with a devastating vine decease and didn’t recover until post WWI and again after WWII. I’ve been enjoying these Patrick Piuze wines since around 2014, along with his Val de Mer label, where he also does a selection Champagne style sparkling wines, and I highly recommend exploring his full collection, which includes some prestigious Grand Cru offerings, as well as top notch Premier Crus, with his Montée de Tonnerre and Vaillons being patricular favorites of mine, along with inspired village efforts like this one and an old vine Aligoté.
($36 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive