"...these are fast becoming some of the most compelling wines made in all of Chablis."
2008 Patrick Piuze Chablis Les Clos,
2009 Patrick Piuze Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Top Cuvées, Debut Vintages, Serious Values
Patrick Piuze is not Raveneau or Dauvissat - yet that doesn't stop nearly everyone from making the comparisons.
And the truth of the matter is that the styles, the monumentality of the wines are very similar (as is the ruthless vineyard work, hand-harvesting and vinification) - Piuze's Chablis are dense with concentration, tense with mineral and acidity.
Patrick's arrival on the Chablis scene with his first vintage (2008) has done nothing less than send shockwaves across this Kimmeridgean-laden landscape. John Gilman's recent reviews of Piuze's 2008s and 2009s (quoted above with tasting notes below) has confirmed what everyone's been talking about since these wines first landed in the U.S. this summer:
For anyone serious about Chablis, these wines are not to be missed.
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While we have carried Patrick's wines since they first arrived, the attention these Chablis have been getting means they are not going to be available for long - Gilman's soaring reviews basically assure that.
So today, before the small U.S. stock is gone, we are offering out Patrick Piuze's 2008 Grand Cru Les Clos and 2009 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre at the lowest prices in the nation.
While these Chablis are not inexpensive, in the context of the greats of Chablis, they are dramatically discounted... a situation that is not likely to remain given Piuze's growing reputation.
We have not provided package pricing, yet we would encourage collectors and Chablis-fans to go deep - these wines are saturated and structured for the long haul. Gilman gives the 08 Clos a drinking window till 2060.
Les Clos is the big boy of all Chablis' Grand Crus, and Piuze's 08 certainly represents it well. 2008 was a vintage of outstanding concentration paired with uncanny purity; both expertly demonstrated here. All the depth and push of rocks, acid and citrus are there along with very sharp focus. Gilman uses words like "profound," "magical," "brilliant," and "utterly flawless" for Piuze's 08 Clos. Seriously, both reviews are worth reading.
As for the Montée de Tonnerre, this is the 1er Cru most qualified to be elevated to a Grand, and Piuze's 09 definitely makes a strong case for just that. The vintage was more opulent and, in general, the 09s have considerably lusher fruit. But not in Piuze's case. He actually made a point to pick his grapes earlier so that ripeness didn't overwhelm the acidity and minerality that mark this region's most classic wines. His MDT shows this off by managing plenty of chalky minerality and purity while the bright fruit is helped along by a generous wash of acid.
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Piuze came to run his own operation after nearly a decade of stints making Chablis at Olivier Leflaive, Jean-Marie Guffens' Verget label and Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard, so he knows the area well. While he doesn't personally own any vines himself, he maintains close relationships with the region's landowners and buys grapes only from plots where he oversees all the vineyard management, and all of the grapes he buys are hand-harvested.
He then lets most wine ferment in old barrels, and he bottles without filtering. It's worth noting that there's no 2009 Les Clos from Piuze, as he wasn't satisfied with the way the wine evolved in the barrel, so he's sold the juice off - an impressive testament to his dedication to the highest quality, as he likely could have made a tidy profit from the wine.
It will be interesting to see what the landscape of Chablis looks like in 20 years - the region is officially on the up-and-up, with a lot of new names investing in land and making wine here - and today's bottles may well end up to be highly coveted cellar treasures. But as we mentioned, this pricing will definitely not last, so please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call us now at (212) 980-9463 to place your order.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
Gilman: "Tasting this profound young vintage of Les Clos, I really wanted to go back and try the rejected 2009 to see what had happened (I suspect the grapes in ’09 were just gathered on the later side and were a bit riper than what Patrick will allow), as this is a magical young bottle in 2008. The brilliant nose offers up a mélange of green apples, grapefruit, lemon peel, kaleidoscopic minerality, dried flowers and flint. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and utterly flawless, with superb mid-palate depth, snappy acids and laser-like focus on the very long, complex and racy finish. A great, great wine."
Gilman: "The 2009 Piuze Montée de Tonnerre is another great wine in the making. The superb nose offers up a classic mélange of apple, lemon, a touch of orange zest, chalky minerality and a gardenful of spring flowers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and very racy, with lovely, nascent complexity, a great core of fruit, superb soil inflection and stunning length and grip on the tensile and very racy finish. Lovely, lovely juice."
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