Gilbert Picq – 2016

22.1.2018billn

Tasted with Didier Picq in Chichée, 19 January 2018.

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

Didier on 2017:
We had a good harvest, starting 6th September – but it was still a complicated year with many nights of frost – but we worked hard to keep things warm! At harvest we had clean grapes, practically no chaptalisation was required – and I was happy! It looks like it could be a very good vintage.

Didier on 2016:
2016 – just 10% of a normal harvest in our villages Chablis – but that’s usually 60% of my annual production – fortunately though, there was more left in the crus. Hail was our biggest problem. In 6 hectares I had no harvest – on average the domaine made about 20 hl/ha – 30% of a normal vintage – we’ve 30,000 bottles vs normally about 100,000.

The wines…

A little extra richness in the first two wines, but then all are beautifully classic – the combination of ‘classic’ and Picq’ is always something to savour!

All the first that we are tasting are bottled though not all the volume is done – and these since Sept/Oct – but the 2016s are not currently for sale, Didier has delayed their introduction due to the lack of wine to sell!

2016 Chablis
The first bottle he’s opened!
Plenty of colour. A tight nose, but offering subtle notes, flashes of citrus. Big in the mouth, a richness of flavour, ripe fruit, wide and involving. Lovely balance and really very, very tasty. The finish is long and seems to get tastier and tastier – yes!

2016 Chablis Vidécorse
Same soil as Vaucoupin, usually lots of millerandes. This from right bank and not so badly hit.
Again deep colour. Also a little tight, but finer and more complex notes are escaping from the glass. There’s also richness of flavour and texture, slowly this wine starts to take off – the mid-palate is simply a fabulous thing – layered growing, melting, complex, almost a salted caramel – ooh this is so brilliantly contemplative – maybe too much for some people – but I find it grandiose!

2016 Chablis Vieilles Vignes
Bottled September. From vines of 60 years-old from 3 parcels – represents almost 1 hectare, more right bank.
More open, more depth and more mineral. More classically shaped – fresh, there’s more line and it’s more directly mouth-watering, melting flavour at the edges. More overtly mineral, mixed with a little citrus agrume. More classic, not more delicious. Beautiful finish.
2016 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
Same soil as the first wine but with a small change in the orientation.
Gorgeous nose – mineral, pure, alive. The form is very similar to the last wine (I say this and Didier tells me that the vines are only 200m apart) but with more width of flavour and a little quicker delivery of complexity – the density of finishing flavour is more too – classic, great wine!

There is no 2016 Chablis Dessus la Carrière.

2016 Chablis 1er Vosgros
In tank, ready to bottle but won’t be done until March
A more reticent nose, mineral, accented with citrus, but really very modest. Starting slowly but the intensity slowly ramps up, the flavours of fine purity and width, beautiful in the finish – a little softer today to start – I can see why it’s not yet bottled – but there’s great material here. Yum!

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