2013 Chablis Terroir de Corgis

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.

This is a solid set of 2013s from Patrick Piuze, although the wines are a bit inconsistent throughout the range. Many of the 2013s are unusually overt and tropical, with mid-weight structures that appear best suited to near-term drinking. Of course, tastings from barrel aren't always representative. In more than one instance I thought the wines were a bit low in sulfur, which can give an impression of flabbiness. Piuze bottled his 2013 village-level wines early as he did not think they had the structure to support longer time in barrel, which appears to have been a good decision. It will be interesting to see how the 2013 1er and Grand Crus turn out once they have been bottled. Personally, I find the 2012s quite a bit more exciting.