Chablis may be the most talked-about white Burgundy of all right now. For one thing, Chablis is relatively affordable for a wine of its pedigree. Chablis is also so unmistakably a “wine of place” – a characteristic we believe more people care about these days – it’s fairly easy to understand.
Grown in Burgundy’s most northerly outpost, in soils of deep limestone strewn with marine fossils, Chablis is all about mineral, acid-driven energy. What the best producers bring to Chardonnay here is depth, not weight (yes, there’s a difference), and Thomas Pico, a young rising star in the region, gets that. His is the sure hand behind this phenomenal 2015 from Domaine Bois d’Yver, a wine that channels greats like Raveneau in delivering intensely pure Burgundian Chardonnay. We could easily envision using it in a wine class or comparative tasting because of its ‘benchmark’ quality: it just screams Chablis at its finest. You simply cannot find much village-level Chablis at this price point that delivers the goods like this one.
Pico inherited some vineyard land fairly recently, and started his own domaine, Pattes Loup, in 2005. His acquisitions have included some from his father’s domaine, Bois d’Yver, where he has continued to take on more responsibility – to the point where he now runs both properties simultaneously. In both instances, he has worked quickly and fastidiously to convert all of the vineyards to organic viticulture, something that, despite all of the talk of sustainability worldwide, hasn’t really ‘swept’ Chablis. In fact, when you read up on some of Chablis’ new-generation producers – not only Pico but Patrick Piuze; Lillian Duplessis; Sébastien Dampt – the common theme is of a ‘return,’ of sorts, to the vineyards. Chablis is still a place known for mechanized harvesting and other means of large-scale productivity, which is why, according to writers like the New York Times’ Eric Asimov, there’s an ocean of flinty, undistinctive Chablis Chardonnay out there that’s “…too tense, thin, and nervous, like an over-caffeinated Woody Allen in a bottle.”
What you’ll see from the likes of Pico is a deeper, fruitier, more profound breed of Chablis. I don’t think these producers are trying to gild the lily here: it’s not about turning Chablis into something buttery, low-acid, and rich. You only have to taste their wines to recognize that. Even those employing longer lees aging (which lends creaminess) or oak-aging (not at all typical in Chablis) are not out to fundamentally alter the personality of Chardonnay from this very marginal climate. But they are trying to intensify that personality – to add muscle, not fat – and that is determined not in the winery but in the vineyard, where cleaner, healthier fruit, grown organically, is hand-selected. It also means reducing yields in vineyards, which, as in so many historic wine regions the world over, would have been considered blasphemous by the previous generation.
The word ‘transparency’ is thrown around quite a bit these days. It is highly appropriate when discussing Bois d’Yver. In this bottling Pico sources fruit from all over the property’s 10 hectares, where the average age of the vines is 30 years. The hand-harvested fruit is fermented using only natural yeasts in stainless steel, where the wine remains for 10 months to rest on its lees (the yeast cells left over after fermentation). Other than a touch of clotted cream texture from this lees contact, however, this wine is all about Chardonnay unadorned: scents of lime and dusty chalk and oyster shells giving way to a palate of ripe, clear, rather deep apple/pear fruit. Of course there’s that classic Chablis crushed-rock minerality lending crunch and grip but it’s not choking off the fruit. It’s like picking a handful of dewy, ripe grapes off the vine at harvest time. It is in no way “big,” but makes an impact just the same.
As with any young Chablis I advise beating this wine up a little when serving it. Pour it roughly into a decanter. Let it come up to about 60 degrees (refrigerator temp will keep it too shut down and austere). Use a glass that gives you license to swirl and aerate. Although it is a no-brainer with fresh oysters and really just about any white-fleshed whole fish you can imagine, I also love a wine like this with cheeses –particularly a great goat’s milk chèvre, which this wine resembles on so many levels. For a completely different approach to pairing, one of my all time favorites is this Steamed Cantonese Fish recipe. Try it, you will love it!
