Tasted in Courgis with Thomas Pico, 21 January 2019 – and for the second year in succession, Thomas took off his hat for the photo!
Domaine Pattes Loups
Grande rue Nicolas Droin
89800 Courgis
Tel: +33 3 86 41 46 38
www.pattes-loup.com
As last year, given the longer elevage here, we taste some 2016, not the 2017 vintage as it won’t be bottled for many months – perhaps a year! That said, there are also 2018s here – and red ones too!
Thomas on 2018:
We had a magnificent year – very good in volume – like I’ve never seen. We started our harvest the 4 September, finishing about the 25-26 Sept. Clearly very ripe grapes too – the wines partly remind me of those in 2015 – and they were not the easiest to ferment. It’s the first time I’ve made some ‘northern’ reds but for a couple of years I made some barrels of southern reds from the Rhône.
Thomas on 2017:
“The frost here meant that I averaged only about 20 hl/ha for the domaine. The wines are very easy to drink, from quite a sunny year – fruity wines. It was actually a very easy year, apart from the frost!”
Thomas on 2016:
“2016 brought 8 hl/ha – so about 20% of a normal vintage – of-course because of frost, but the hail was even worse. The wines were made from an assembly of the first, and the less ripe, second generation grapes. I like the wines very much – I think the salinity will slowly make itself shown.”
The wines…
Out of choice, given the length of elevage and the timing of commercialising here, I just taste the bottled wines. The current offer – a mix of 2015 and 2016 – are really top-notch – it’s hard to put into words, despite some style differences between the vintages, just how damn drinkable these wines are!
2018 Pinot Noir
From barrel. From Alsace.
Pretty nose. Supple, layers, hmm – really Alsace? Long, tasty wine with fine depth of flavour.
2018 Irancy
Also from barrel. A young vines wine, part destemmed, all pinot.
More colour, round and some depth of aroma. Hmm, more depth of delicious flavour. This has a strong, persistent finish, not rustic, very tasty. This will be super.
The whites are a mix of 2015 and 2016 – in the order they were poured:
2015 Chablis Vent d’Ange
There are different bottlings, but this was aged 30 months – bottled in March 2018.
Fresh, direct a little golden style to crystallised fruit. Wide, fresh, supple but no fat. A super depth of flavour – sweetly yellow, ripe lemon fruit. Love the finishing intensity, small waves of finishing love. Super – very different style to 2016/2017s (elsewhere!)
This was bottled in the summer of 2018.
A more airy nose. More overt freshness and minerality. Hmm – this has a lovely agrume – more grapefruit spectrum. Vibrantly delicious – grand vin!
2016 Chablis 1er Côte de Jouan
0.25 ha, south-east-facing next to the domaine
Agrumes, plenty of ripe lemon but creamily accented on the nose. Less overt freshness vs the Chablis. Wide, more complex and with a mobile complexity of flavour. Plenty of freshness here though, more than a suggestion of finishing oak. Excellent, indeed delicious – today I have some preference for the villages though.
Just 3 barrels, from 1.7 hectares!
A vibrant nose – of ripe and gelée lemon – reminds a little of the 2015. Fresh, large-scale, very mineral, the citrus only slowly melting from the core and filling the mouth. This is a beauty – slowly opening, deliciously citric in the finish – long and vibrant again – bravo!
‘Sol magnifique’ – but needs harvesting late.
An aromatic minerality of sucrosity and depth, suggesting faint reduction – quickly fading with air. Hmm – a more overt energy and volume vs the 2016, less focus and weight. Beautifully juicy finishing, with little waves of ripe citrus finishing flavour. Excellent wine that’s really at its best in the finish – here it’s easily grand vin!
Also bottled in the summer of 2018. Some barrel, some cement tank – assembled in 2017, Racked in 2018 and bottled in July.
Hmm this has a larger core of fruit aroma, ripe but fresh, vibrant too – given time there’s a floral component – it just keeps getting fresher and fresher with air. More direct, mineral, more understated complexity, slowly growing, slowly growing more complexity too. Floral in the finish – delicious and the most complex of all – not the most weight or focus but almost a suggestion of salinity in the complexity – bravo!