France · Burgundy · Chablis · White · Still · wine-wine · 1509171
Lowest offer: 56.67 GBP (Buy)
Offers: 2 · Bids: 0
| Price / case | Vintage | Packing | Qty | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 340.02 GBP | 2020 | 6 x 75cl | 1 | uk / United Kingdom |
| 355.30 GBP | 2020 | 6 x 75cl | 3 | uk / United Kingdom |
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| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 5624.04 | 90 |
| 2018 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 6998.28 | 93 |
| 2018 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 3499.14 | 93 |
| 2019 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 93 | |
| 2019 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 93 | |
| 2020 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 7857.96 | 94 |
| 2020 | 6 x 75cl | 2 | 0 | 3928.98 | 94 |
| 2021 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2022 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 91 | |
| 2022 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 91 | |
| 2023 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 |
Rating: 94 –94
One of the highlights of the range is the 2020 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent, a medium to full-bodied, taut and concentrated wine evocative of pear, citrus oil, smoke, oyster shell and freshly baked bread. Chiseled and incisive, it concludes with a long, penetrating finish.
Rating: 93 –93
The 2019 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent wafts from the glass with aromas of citrus zest, green apple, warm bread and iodine. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and concentrated, it's lively and enveloping, with terrific mid-palate amplitude and a long, saline finish.
Rating: 93 –93
The 2014 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent comes from two lieux-dits within the vineyard picked around three or four days apart. It has a refined, linden and citrus-scented bouquet that unfolds in the glass. It's not as immediate as Patrick's other 2014s but it repays patience. The palate is fresh and vibrant, full of tension and with fine density, a touch of spice enlivening the finish that feels long in the mouth. What a superb contribution to the vintage.
Rating: 91 –91
Aromas of pear, freshly baked bread, iodine and hazelnuts preface the 2022 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent, a medium to full-bodied, ample and layered wine that's richer and more unctuous than normal, reflecting the warmth of the vintage. If it tightens up with some time in bottle, it will make my score look conservative.
Rating: 91 –91
The 2015 Chablis 1Er Cru Vaulorent has a tightly wound bouquet that comes across a little reticent at first, though it unfurls and offers spice and cracked pepper notes with aeration. The palate is well balanced with crisp acidity. It feels saline in the mouth like Piuze’s Chablis Butteaux, albeit with a little more weight and persistence on the finish. Don't be afraid to decant this for 30-60 minutes.
Rating: 90 –90
The 2016 Chablis 1Er Cru Vaulorent has a pleasant nose of yellow flowers and an orange blossom-scented bouquet that comes across as detailed, pretty and winsome. The palate is also pretty with a bit more fatness than Piuze’s other premier crus. There is a touch of brashness about this Vaulorent that I appreciate and everything leads to a saline, lemongrass-tinged finish. This is a delicious Vaulorent from Piuze even if it does not quite match the 2014.
Rating: 93 –93
The 2018 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent numbers among the highlights of the Piuze range this year, unfurling in the glass with notes of lime zest, lemon oil, oyster shells and white flowers. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, with superb concentration, excellent tension at the core and a pure, precise finish.
Rating: 92 –93
From old vines in two especially breezy spots in this grand quality premier cru, the 8 barrels of Piuze 2012 Chablis Vaulorent display infectiously juicy fresh lime and white peach admirably transparent to nuances of stone, salt, and crustaceans. Bittersweet perfume of iris and gentian wafts from the glass and afterward across a subtly creamy palate tinged, too, with almond extract and peach kernel. The intricacy of floral, mineral, and fruit interweaving here are typical for this superb site and the clarity and energy typical for the best of the 2012 vintage. Plan to follow this beauty through at least 2022. Quebecer Patrick Piuze – a former cellarmaster for Brocard about whose inaugural 2008 vintage under his own name I enthused in issue 191 – has since then significantly expanded his range; further honed his already formidable skills; and acquired some superb new sources of fruit, making his one of the most exciting among France’s modern breed of micro-negociants not to mention among newcomers to Chablis during the past decade. Incidentally, like many of the aforementioned breed, Piuze sells his wines overwhelmingly (at last count, he says, 93%) abroad. He exercises considerable control over the viticultural regimen practiced by his dozen suppliers (three dominant) in the parcels for whose fruit he contracts, and continues to be a tireless experimenter and self-critic in matters of vinification. With 2011, he began utilizing a mechanical rather than bladder press for half of his wines, and in 2012 exclusively, citing his belief that this enhances dry extract and stability, though it requires much more time and someone standing by the press. Piuze adds that this approach also gains him some of the advantages in quality of juice associated with traditional Champagne presses, but that a vertical press such as used in that region is impractical for his large number of small lots and small team (with only two other full-time participants, his partner Sylvie Quittot and his father-in-law). Non-cru wines here are raised almost entirely in tank and crus in previously used barrel. “We picked beginning September 20 in 2012, and as fast as we could” Piuze notes, “because there was quite a lot of rain and it’s easier to pick with water on the grapes that I can dry-off than with water in the grapes.” Alcohols, unadjusted, registered from 11.8-12.3% (very close to the estate’s readings in 2011). “The point is not to pick early but ripe,” Piuze generalizes, “and to pick ripe but not overripe where you lose brightness and saliva inducement for the sake of fat.” Most of Piuze’s 2012s finished malo-lactic conversion by Christmas but alcoholic fermentation only in early spring. “I don’t do this on purpose, it just usually happens” he notes, adding “I don’t know why myself. But the levels of volatility come out all right, and anyway, I don’t like wines that have too little volatile acidity.” Despite what was already the certainty of a late 2013 harvest, Piuze planned to bottle his 2012 crus (excepting Les Clos) already in July, a testimony to economic considerations – “I’m already lucky enough (just) to be able to do what I do, that it’s not even a burden to bottle one stage earlier than I otherwise would” he notes with a grin – but also a policy that has stood his wines well in past vintages. So many sites I hadn’t anticipated were represented in the 2012 line-up that the time I had allotted for our tasting session did not permit opportunity to taste even one of Piuze’s 2011s (nor did my subsequent schedule), so I’ll plan to report next year on how at least some of his efforts from that vintage are faring. Imported by Aliane Wines, La Jolla, CA; tel. (858) 361-4529, David Bowler Wine, New York, NY; (212) 807-1680, and Martine’s Wines Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400
Rating: 87 –89
The 2013 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent has a crisp and slightly petrol-like bouquet that has real character - in fact, there is almost an Alsace Riesling element at play here. The palate is balanced but not quite as complex as Les Butteaux (for example). The palate is nicely balanced with good acidity, a little grassy in texture with a spice-tinged finish that just needs to develop a little more persistency. Drink 2016-2025. Visiting Patrick Piuze for the first time at his winery in Chablis ville, not that far from Francois Raveneau, was something that I eagerly anticipated after the praise heaped upon him by David Schildknecht. Indeed, I found much to admire here: one of the region's most active and dynamic micro-negociants that debuted as recently as 2008. Quebec-born Piuze is a coiled-spring of energy and opinions, a principled winemaker who knows exactly what he would like to achieve without pushing too hard. I detected a burning streak of independence about the winemaker. Before tasting through his 2013s he told me about dropping out of college to pursue his passion for wine, backpacking around the world, before finally leaving Montreal for Burgundy in 2000 where he worked at Olivier Leflaive. One has the sense of someone searching for, and eventually finding, his calling. I can empathize with that. Leflaive's portfolio introduced him to Chablis and he was soon starting his tenure as cellar-master at Jean-Marc Brocard. But that independent mind-set continued to burn and perhaps inevitably, he assembled enough friends and contacts to supply him with quality fruit from the region's most desirable vineyards to form his own enterprise. He maintains that youthful rebellious nature; neatly circumventing the appellation-s rules about eschewing premier cru vineyard designations with his "Terroir de?" series that are all worth hunting down. "I pressed a little longer in 2013, since I did not want to risk breaking the cake," he told me as we settled into his underground cellar that stretches underneath the road via a tunnel. "I reverted back to my Vaslin press in 2012 vintage because we did not have enough dry extract in the wine. The 2012 growing season was as good as it gets. There was a slow maturation of berries that gave us very healthy grapes without much disease pressure. We began the harvest on September 20 under good conditions and the cold night preserved high acidity levels. In 2013, I harvested over 8 days instead of the usual 14, finishing on October 5. People probably think it was the rain that was the biggest risk during the harvest, but actually it was the high night temperatures that seemed to keep the rot going. And so, in my opinion, it was actually the Thursday that was the most damaging day. I have undertaken a shorter elevage in order to keep the freshness and the alcohol levels are very moderate, the highest alcohol coming in at 12.3 degrees." Imported by Aliane Wines, La Jolla, CA; tel. (858) 361-4529; David Bowler Wine, New York, NY; tel. (212) 807-1680; Martine-s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400
Rating: 92 –92
Patrick Piuze's 2023 Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent, derived from a climat within Fourchaume and in close proximity to the grands crus, is another strong performer, exhibiting aromas of peach, tangerine zest, green apple and oyster shell. Medium to full-bodied and concentrated yet tensile, it is racy, with excellent depth and a persistent mineral finish.