2024 Gilbert Picq Chablis 1er Cru Vaucoupin, Burgundy, France (750ml)

The Picq style of Chablis displays the inimitable expression of minerality that Chardonnay only picks up in this rolling hillside and limestone-laden vineyards of the Yonne Valley, coupled with racy acidity and fine depth that comes with low yields and meticulous viticulture and winemaking. The wines are naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts and raised in stainless steel tanks to protect the underlying expressions of terroir. You won't find a single stave of wood in the entire winery! Pascal Picq does severe pruning each winter and routinely thins the crop twice in the summer months. The serious work in the vineyards can immediately be felt in the Picq wines, as even the Chablis villages, the parcellaire wines (also village-level), and the Chablis Vieilles Vignes offer up a depth and intensity of flavor in the mid-palates that is most often associated with at least premier cru-level wines. The domain’s 1.5-acre parcel was planted on the right bank in 1989 on a terrifically steep, south-facing hillside where the winter snow is always first to melt. The soil here is pure Kimmeridgian limestone, white and layered, and the wine brims with Chablis’s classic steely cut and minerality.

Situated in the commune of Chichée, Vaucoupin is a highly regarded premier cru on the east side of the river Serein. The 2024 Gilbert Picq Chablis 1er Cru Vaucoupin is a strict, highly focused, and classical expression of its right-bank terroir. True to the style of Domaine Gilbert Picq, this wine is vinified entirely in stainless steel using indigenous yeasts to ensure maximum mineral purity without any oak interference. Intense, driving bouquet of green apple, white peach, tart citrus, spring flowers, and beeswax, all resting on a pungent base of crushed oyster shells. On the palate: crisp, linear, and tensile entry. It displays a slightly creamier texture and deeper mid-palate density than Picq's Vosgros bottling. Flavors feature a vibrant core of citrus fruit and pure white fruit. Clean and persistent finish with excellent depth. It leaves a signature salty, chalky, and high-acid marine minerality on the tongue.