If you aren’t already familiar with Thomas Pico, you will be very soon. Even the most cautious critics will admit he’s one of the youngest, most talented winemakers in Chablis. And the least cautious critics? They say he’s one of the youngest, most talented winemakers in history—period.
Pico’s cult following and vibrant, tactile wines have cornered him a place on Burgundy’s list of all-time greats...and he’s barely getting started. Domaine Pattes Loup (“wolf paws” in French) is his primary project, but Thomas has been slowly acquiring historic vineyard plots that once belonged to his father and grandfather and lending them his Midas touch. Today’s wine Bois d’Yver, is a separate estate run in parallel to Pattes Loup and farmed with Thomas’ signature fervor for unobstructed purity of fruit: organic farming, no synthetic inputs, native-yeast ferments, and aging with an emphasis on freshness as well as complexity. Thomas’ talent combined with the quality of 2018 as a vintage is an undeniably recipe for success. Don’t miss this opportunity to join the Pico parade—they’ll come fewer and farther between as he continues to create heart-stopping, mouth-watering expressions of his beloved Chablis.
Pico is a third-generation winemaker, having shadowed both his father and grandfather as they tended the family’s vines in the village of Courgis (just outside of Chablis). He completed his degree in Viticulture and Enology at the University of Beaune, before returning to the family business in 2004 with a few tricks up his sleeve. Thomas was never a traditional guy by any means, but in 2005 he did the unthinkable: converted 8 hectares of his grandfather’s prized Chardonnay to organic farming. Contextually, Chablis is one of the hardest places to farm organically due to its marginal climate. It takes an incredible amount of skill, patience, and a little hubris to farm organically in a region where mechanization is the status quo. To the consternation of his family, he began rotating cover crops to protect against erosion—a concern for their vineyards specifically seeing as the Picos farm the two highest altitude villages in the appellation, Courgis and Preys. Thomas began using entirely indigenous yeasts for his fermentations and bottling unfined, unfiltered expressions of Chablis that tasted more like lightning and rock-juice than any of the correct—but uninspiring—wines made by his family.
He’s since taken over more and more of his family’s vines including the historic 2.5 hectares responsible for “Bois d’Yver”—once his father’s domaine. The wine comes from a single parcel of 30-year-old vines in Thomas’ native Courgis. Through Thomas’ talent and imagination, the crop has been drastically reduced but immeasurably concentrated. He’s farmed the historic plot in the same rigorous organic methods as his own Pattes Loup vines, coaxing out a hitherto unmatched richness, density, and electricity. The 2018 was fermented and aged in stainless steel with ambient yeasts. Like all of Thomas’ wines, it built unparalleled texture on the lees during 14 months of élevage (aging) before being bottled without fining or filtration. It’s as if Thomas squeezed Bois D’Yver from the clay and limestone bedrock beneath, extracting each drop through sheer force of creativity and curiosity. After two years of drastically reduced yields because of hail, the 2018 is a triumphant return to glory—easily the best vintage in 20 years.
Pico’s Chablis has an inherent coolness that seems to transcend temperature. It’s like the molecules of this wine are particularly still, waiting for just the right moment to burst forth in torrents of green apple juice, white pepper, and crunchy lemon sorbet. The nose is decidedly mineral-tinged, but it isn’t till you take your first mouthful of Bois d’Yver that the full force of the terroir becomes evident--pure, relentless minerality. That being said, there’s an inner sweetness to all of Pico’s wines that perfectly balances the intensity of their acidity and stoniness. It’s that juxtaposition that creates the ultimate determinant of world-class Chablis: weightlessness. This bottle is so feather-light that you’ll finish it before you’ve fully woken up from its salty, zesty trance, so make sure you’ve got another bottle in the fridge and a case in the cellar. It will be drinking beautifully for the next decade at least, and Pico’s meteoric rise means his wines aren’t getting easier to come by!
Enjoy Bois d’Yver with an abundance of summer produce, piled into a crunchy, flavorful salad topped with cubes of fried tofu. It’s an unorthodox pairing for an unorthodox wine—we think Thomas would approve.
