Minots
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2028
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled seafood, roasted poultry, creamy mushroom risotto
✨ Technical Specifications
Patrick Piuze's Chablis Premier Cru 'Minots' (often bottled as part of the Vaillons Premier Cru climat) is a stunning testament to the power of old vines and precise terroir selection. Sourced from a specific, sun-drenched parcel on the left bank of the Serein River, this wine benefits from Kimmeridgian limestone soils rich in fossilized oyster shells, blended with a higher clay content that imparts a distinct richness. The name 'Minots' evokes historical French measures, grounding the wine in the deep agricultural ancestry of Burgundy. Piuze utilizes traditional, low-intervention cellar practices, fermenting with wild yeasts and aging the wine in neutral wood barrels. This method coaxes out a beautifully textured, expansive palate that retains the classic, flinty, and saline-driven core characteristic of world-class Chablis.
🍾 About the Producer
Founded on July 1, 2008, by Quebecois vigneron Patrick Piuze, this boutique Chablis négociant-vinificateur has emerged as one of the region's most uncompromising champions of terroir. Following pivotal stints at Olivier Leflaive, Maison Verget under Jean-Marie Guffens, and Jean-Marc Brocard, Piuze established an innovative model grounded in long-term contracts with premier growers. Operating without owning vineyards, he works exclusively with old vines situated within the historical, unexpanded boundaries of Chablis. Sourcing from Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone slopes on both banks of the Serein River, Piuze mandates hand-harvesting, non-interventionist viticulture without chemical inputs, and early picking to preserve tension and saline freshness. Vinification is rigorously artisanal: vertical basket pressing, native yeast fermentation, and aging in neutral French oak barrels (four to eight years old) for cru bottlings or stainless steel for village wines, always bottled unfined and gently filtered. Signature releases include single-terroir village cuvées such as Les Bas de Chapelot and Plateau Cornasse, alongside premier crus like Butteaux, Forêts, and Montée de Tonnerre, and benchmark Grand Crus including Les Preuses and Blanchots.
🍇 Grapes
Chardonnay
🍷 ABV
12.5-13%