Thomas Pico |
Country of Origin: France
Location: Chablis
People: Thomas Pico, Owner & Winemaker
Thomas Pico is the young winemaker/proprietor at the head of Domaine Pattes Loup, a small plot of his family’s vineyard in Chablis. At the age of 30, he’s already earned a reputation for innovation and excellence in a region known for tradition and difficult growing conditions. In 2005, he dubbed his inherited 2.4 hectares “Wolf Paws,” and began transforming the site with strict yield control and organic viticulture. He’s the third generation of winemakers in his family.
One key to his success is his vines: they are massale-selected (planted with many clonal strains instead of just one for a varied crop and more complex wine), 55+ years old, and planted on steep hillsides near Courgis and Prey. The quality of the grapes helps him express the briny minerality prized in Chablis, while adding density and texture. Pico hand harvests and hand sorts for the very best grapes, and does no fining or filtration before bottling. His AOC Chablis sees some fermentation in concrete egg-shaped vessels--which offers a kind of steady lees stirring, adding texture to the wine--and the rest in stainless steel for a kinetic crispness. His 1er Cru wines are rounder and softer, as they are fermented in neutral oak with indigenous yeasts.
Thomas Pico’s wines are the unique expression of both the region’s terroir and the young winemaker’s chutzpah.
“As I briefly narrated in Issue 191,
young Thomas Pico farms a share of his family's vines organically,
supplementing with a small amount of contract fruit over which he keeps a close
watch. The juice is pressed - with generous aeration and minimal sulfuring - at
the family's Domaine Bois d'Yver facility in Courgis, but Pico's spacious
barrel cellar has, since vintage 2009, been under his parent's house near the
center of Chablis. The seventh Domaine Pattes Loup harvest did not commence
until September 25, 2012, but since production is small, Pico is well-poised to
exercise patience and to carefully strategize picking according to his exacting
ideals. The premier crus as well as the last of several otherwise identical
lots of generic Chablis are characteristically bottled in March after the
second winter, and nothing is done to hurry along his wines- evolution, as
witness the majority of barrels from 2012 that were still finishing alcoholic
fermentation at the time of my June visit, thus permitting me to offer useful
tasting notes on only two of them. Conditions in Pico's cellar are very cold,
which, taken together with long elevage, permits slow settling and
stabilization, the generic Chablis receiving minimal filtration and the premier
crus none whatsoever, a rare occurrence in this region.” - Wine Advocate 8/2013
"Pattes Loup is one of the most intriguing emerging domaines in Chablis.
Mentored by Olivier and Alice de Moor, Thomas Pico is making some of the
most thought provoking, no-compromises wines in Chablis. The 2010s were
brought in between October 8-10, very late for an already late harvest.
Average yields were 38 hectoliters per hectare, absurdly low by Chablis
standards. The wines were aged in French oak barrels. Personally, I
think the 2010s were picked a little late, as the wines are a bit on the
heavy side, but I nevertheless admire Thomas Pico-s willingness to take
risks and push the boundaries of what Chablis is and can be. In three
to five years, Pattes Loup could very well be in the same league as the
two long-established icons in Chablis. You know who I mean. One producer
is just down the road, the other right around the corner." - Wine Advocate 2012 "Pattes Loup is arguably the single most exciting young domaine in Chablis today. Proprietor Thomas Pico owns five hectares of vineyards under his name and purchases additional fruit from vineyards owned by his father but that Pico farms himself, all in Courgis and Chablis itself. Both sets of vineyards are farmed biodynamically. The approach in the winery is similarly hands-off. The 2009 harvest began during the 3rd week of September, towards the later side for the year in Chablis, yet the wines retain a level of crystalline purity and nuance that is quite rare for the vintage. The 2009 premier crus were mostly vinified in neutral oak with ambient yeasts (unusual in Chablis), where they remained on their lees with no rackings through the malos. The wines were racked in August, 2010, assembled, and bottled in March, 2011 with no fining or filtration. Pico remains deeply influenced by Oliver and Alice de Moor, his neighbors and mentors in Courgis. Stylistically, Pico's wines remind me of the laser-like focus of Cedric Bouchard's Champagnes combined with the richness and inner sweetness found in the wines of the late Didier Dagueneau. Simply put, these are some of the most ground-breaking, intensely captivating wines being made in Chablis today. Readers should do whatever they can to taste them. Thomas Pico is just a bit past his 30th birthday, but he is already on his way to becoming a superstar." - Wine Advocate 2011
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