Tasted in Courgis with Thomas Pico, 08 January 2020 – and for the third(!) year in succession, in six years of visits, Thomas took off his hat for the photo – that’s now a draw!
Domaine Pattes Loups
Grande rue Nicolas Droin
89800 Courgis
Tel: +33 3 86 41 46 38
www.pattes-loup.com
More reports for Domaine Pattes Loups
Thomas is currently aiming for 36 months of elevage, so like each year we get to see a vintage one year older. Today the 2017s. Yellow wax tops for the village wines, black for the crus. “I’m working towards biodynamics, I’m also showing the amount of sulfur on the labels too – it’s all about trying to be as transparent as possible,” he says. “It’s clearly not about the money, if it was, I’d machine harvesting and bottling after 6 months – always with 70 hl/ha yields!”
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 September – 3 weeks of harvesting – I’ve never seen that either! Clearly very ripe grapes too – the wines partly remind me of those in 2015 – and they were not the easiest to ferment – it’s a rich vintage. We have some VCI – I’ve never had that before either. It’s a dream after the yields of 2016 and 2017.
Thomas on 2017:
“The frost here meant that I averaged only about 22 hl/ha for the domaine. Post-frost it was quite a sunny year – fruity wines. It was actually a very easy year, apart from the frost – it’s probably because of that that there was so much in 2018!”
The wines…
The wines here are anyway excellent – but that’s just their starting-point – they are off the scale for their finishes – simply brilliant in 2017!
We taste just the bottled wines:
Ooh – that’s a fine nose – open and fresh, I’ve not tasted many 2018s like that! Sweet but mouth-filling, layered, complex, with good energy. Fine, sweet lemon flavoured – and a great, great, great finish – wow finishing!
2018 Chablis 1er Vaillons
The ony wine not to come from the domaine, but certified organic grapes – it’s a small cuvée.
A finer, wider but thin line of beautiful aroma. Mineral, ultra-complex, the mid-palate is great, almost creamily complex – long, brilliant! That extra cream/lactic probably shouldn’t be there but it’s delicious!
1.7 hectares – ‘Sol magnifique’ – but it needs harvesting later.
A little more effusive nose – more ‘nose-filling!’ Clarity, more composed and also concentrated, less overt energy, not the creamy lactic of the previous in the middle. Long with wide and actually quite intense waves of finishing flavour. Oh, great wine in the finish. Bravo!
Bottled in August.
Ooh – the most vibrant and mineral nose of all. This has a sizzling line of acidity – it’s such a baby – long, fine and for patience! Bravo!