Chablis 1er Cru Vaucoupin Gilbert Picq comes from a 1.5-acre parcel within this rather overlooked premier cru. It is a more voluptuous style of wine with some tropical fruit notes and touches of toffee behind the green lime and apple fruit flavours. Although a little richer, the wine still has that classic, racy mineral Chablis tang, is very precise and full of energy.
Brothers Didier and Pascal Picq (sons of Gilbert) run this high quality 13-hectare estate which is based in the small village of Chichée, 3km south of the town of Chablis. They are an extremely affable pair, aided by their sister Marilyn and Pascal’s daughter, Tiphanie, who clearly love and understand the Chablis terrior as well as anyone. Their wines remain true to classic, traditional Chablis with all fermentation and ageing carried out in stainless steel tanks. Oak barrels are not used which result in typically fresh wines with the characteristic tang, mineral petrichor and oyster shell aroma of proper old school Chablis. Yeasts are all natural, sulphur is kept to a minimum and they are working towards organic certification.
I’ve been lucky enough to taste wines back to 2008 in the cellar with Didier. Chablis is all too often consumed too earlier, and it you can, I’d highly recommend aging some of these wines for as long as possible. After 10 years bottle age, the 1er Cru’s start to take on fascinating developed flavours which only come from bottle age. The Picqs were early adopters of bottling smaller plots rather than blending them into the village Chablis. The brothers identified several parcels from within their vineyards that displayed unique and fantastic characteristics. The Vieilles Vignes (Old Vines) was an easy first step, but their En Vaudecorce and Dessus la Carriere offer 1er Cru quality and superb value.
