2009 Pattes Loup - Chablis

I was privileged on the occasion of my recent visit to re-taste Pico's 2009 Chablis alongside his generic 2010 and 2011. Not surprisingly, it makes for a strong contrast with those two last-named vintages. Deeply leesy, nutty, subtly caramelized richness here is a function not only of age, but of the fundamentally ripe, generous character of this growing season. Yet there is still an enlivening, refreshing, and what's more perfectly-integrated streak of fresh lime. Add the saliva-inducement of subtle salinity and intrigue of kelp, iodine, candied lime rind, piquant fruit pit, and alkali, and you have a recipe for fascination that should be worth following through 2014. As I briefly narrated in Issue 191, young Thomas Pico farms a share of his family's vines organically, supplementing with a small amount of contract fruit over which he keeps a close watch. The juice is pressed - with generous aeration and minimal sulfuring - at the family's Domaine Bois d'Yver facility in Courgis, but Pico's spacious barrel cellar has, since vintage 2009, been under his parent's house near the center of Chablis. The seventh Domaine Pattes Loup harvest did not commence until September 25, 2012, but since production is small, Pico is well-poised to exercise patience and to carefully strategize picking according to his exacting ideals. The premier crus as well as the last of several otherwise identical lots of generic Chablis are characteristically bottled in March after the second winter, and nothing is done to hurry along his wines- evolution, as witness the majority of barrels from 2012 that were still finishing alcoholic fermentation at the time of my June visit, thus permitting me to offer useful tasting notes on only two of them. Conditions in Pico's cellar are very cold, which, taken together with long elevage, permits slow settling and stabilization, the generic Chablis receiving minimal filtration and the premier crus none whatsoever, a rare occurrence in this region. A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29