Gilbert Picq – 2015

1.3.2017billn

Tasted with Didier Picq in Chichée, 23 January 2017.

Domaine Gilbert Picq et Fils
3 route de Chablis
89800 Chichée
Tel: +33 3 86 42 18 30

Didier on 2016:
2016 – just 10% of a normal harvest in Chablis though there was more left in the crus. We lost 1.5 hectares to the frost, but still it was the hail which was our biggest problem. Overall we lost 70%.

Didier on 2015:
2015 I would describe as delivering a perfect yield. We had one or two holes in the leaves around Vosgros, but really no hail problems – it was that close! No chaptalising needed! I waited about 1 week after the rain, starting the harvest the 9th September.

“It was always impressive, even from tank, to see the precision with which the terroirs were differentiated. I have no benchmarks, I never saw a vintage quite like it, the amères (bitter) and precision. I don’t see 2009, its much above that vintage.

The wines…

Domaine Picq has a relatively modest list of cuvées, but year-in, year-out they deliver some of the best wines in the region – bravo! Lots of citrus and salinity in this vintage.

2015 Chablis
Bottled December. The assembly of about a dozen parcels from 8 hectares of vines – the biggest of the domaine 60,000 bottles.
Hmm, a very pretty nose – a hint of tightness, but modestly saline, pure fruit. This sits very fine on the palate with layers of flavour. Becoming brighter with a fine pure fruit, yellow fruit, simply getting wider and ever more insistent in finishing flavour. That’s super impressive.

2015 Chablis Vidécorse
Same soil as Vaucoupins, delivering about 35 hl/ha, lots of millerandes – not made in 13.
Ooh – finer, fresh points of clean and attractive complexity. Hmm – wider, a little more classic salinity, and a really beautiful line. This is really super, finely textured, and again really open-ended on the persistent finish. Bravo!
2015 Chablis Vieilles Vignes
Bottled September. From vines of 60 years-old from 3 parcels – represents almost 1 hectare, more right bank.
A tighter but more obviously deep nose. This has a beautiful and of-course different personality. A freshly intense citrus line, slowly developing a salinity too. Actually even more saline in the finish. Classic, tasty intense Chablis. Simply a lovely thing.
2015 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
Same soil as the first wine but with a small change in the orientation.
Steely, mineral aromas – classic. Fabulous, fresh, sweetly mouth-watering wine – packed with agrume freshness, layers of mid-palate and finishing flavours. Long, long, long… this is my new favourite!

The following are tank samples:

2015 Chablis Dessus la Carrière
A width of fresh and tight-fruited nose. A hint of gas. Layered intensity, fine cushioning, but really an expanding, mouth-watering, melting flavour over the palate. Modest points of salinity and really a very defined mineral finish. Bravo!
2015 Chablis 1er Vosgros
To be bottled about the start of May.
Here is the first wine with a little agrume-style reduction to the nose – always very attractive. Again a touch of gas. Wide, intense beautiful agrume flavour – really – growing in salinity, and then a finishing wave of wide, never austere minerality in the finish. As always simply a top address!

And to finish?

A fresh nose, like a 2008 with its green citrus. In the mouth this is direct, complex, saline, a growing minerality – I love the mid-palate complexity. Lithe and long. This is still relatively young, but it’s delicious. Really a super balance and it leaves a lasting impression. This is just super. 2006 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There is one response to “Gilbert Picq – 2015”

  1. grahamfarrant25th September 2020 at 12:06 pmPermalinkReply

    Just opened my first bottle of the 2015 Dessus la Carriere, excellent balance of minerality, fruit, acidity and a long finish

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