Chablis, France
“He is not a vineyard owner but the quality of his wines suggests he certainly knows where the best vine roots are buried. He spies out great old vines and then picks their produce by hand himself.” - Jancis Robinson
THE ESTATE
Originally from Montreal, Patrick Piuze’s wine adventure started when he was 18 years old when he met Marc Chapoutier who introduced him to the wine culture, he then started working in a wine bar in Canada but in 2000 he decided to settle in Burgundy to discover winemaking. He started at Olivier Leflaive and had an experience at Verget as well before deciding launching his own micro negociant business in Chablis in 2008.
WINEMAKING
Patrick Piuze is passionate about Chablis’ terroir and strives to buy the grapes from the best terroirs and the most meticulous winemakers. Although nowadays the machine harvester is being the norm in Chablis, Patrick is determined to harvest by hand picking with his own team.
Patrick Piuze’s knowledge of Chablis’ terroirs runs deep, and you can tell by his skills of vinifying such a wide range of appellations and achieving to express the sense of place in each of them. The wines are pure expression of Chardonnay, what’s particularly striking is the balance he gets between Chablis’ characteristic minerality and chardonnay’s fleshy fruit. He is not Dauvissat, but he surely doesn’t suffer from the comparison.