Patrick Piuze Bourgogne Tonnerre ‘Les Boutots’ 2021

100% Chardonnay from a south-facing single-vineyard in the commune of Vaulicheres, east of Chablis. Two thirds of the fruit is barrel-fermented and aged, the remaining fruit is in tank.

Patrick Piuze- a Montreal native- took the region by storm when he arrived over decade ago. He worked for Leflaive, Jean-Marc Brocard and Jean-Marie Guffens before starting his own label in 2008, and has very quickly come to be counted among the legendary names of the region. The guy is hella-good fun to hang out with... and while that may sound like an irrelevant detail, it is not: Piuze works with purchased fruit, and his great relationships with the growers of Chablis have allowed him access to choice parcels in all of the great sites.

Patrick harvests everything by hand, a rarity in Chablis, and a paramount factor in the quality of his wines. While most cellars use a pneumatic press, he uses a vertical one because he likes the initial blast of oxygen for the wines in hopes of preventing pre-mox later, a way of thinking also espoused by Jean-Marc Roulot.