2014 Chablis Terroir de Chablis

Piuze harvested early in 2014, beginning on September 13, noting that "the backbone of Côte de Beaune whites is alcohol while in Chablis it's acidity. And I don't like crystallized fruit character." Grape sugars ranged from 11.8% to 12.2% and Piuze added barely 0.1% to 0.2% of sugar at the end of the very fast alcoholic fermentations just to prolong them a bit. (Fermentation temperatures here can mount to 26 or 27 degrees C, which is quite high for Chablis.) Acidity levels in the wine following the malolactic fermentations are in the healthy 4.5 g/l range. Piuze describes the '14s as "like a blend of 2012 and 2008." This ambitious négociant, who has handshake agreements with his suppliers, who are also shareholders in his business, now makes about 135,000 bottles of wine at his facility in Chablis, (including his Val de Mer label), as well as a lot of "non-dosage French bubbly."

Early harvesting helped in 2013, noted Piuze, as the juice prior to the October rain was cleaner. He did a longer debourbage, taking smaller quantities of lees into the barrels, and also bottled earlier. Still, he told me, 2013 is missing the "shooting stars" of Chablis.