Gilbert Picq et ses Fils, Chichée


Gilbert Picq et ses Fils label

Country & RegionFrance, Burgundy
Appellation(s)Chablis
ProducerDidier and Pascal Picq
FoundedA family domain that the brothers Picq took over from their father in 1976.

Didier Picq presides over this small domaine located in the sleepy village of Chichée, which has long been one of the finest exponents of tank-fermented and -matured Chablis. A range of Chablis AOC bottlings that includes several cuvées that would embarrass many loftier appellations is complemented by two premiers crus, Vaucoupin and Vosgros.
         –William Kelley, The Wine Advocate, September 2023

Brothers Didier and Pascal Picq quickly established themselves as rigorous growers after taking over this 32-acre domain from their father in 1976. They prune severely in winter and de-bud twice in spring for low yields. They farm according to the pragmatic, sustainable principles of lutte raisonnée, or reasoned fight, and all that keeps them from being considered organic is their preference for new fungicides rather than copper. They do alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in steel, and age the wine in steel. For a while, their Japanese importer demanded that they make a cuvée in barrel for him, but eventually he saw the light and gave it up. They look for elegance, depth, purity of fruit, length and minerality in their wines, while aiming for age-worthiness and moderate levels of alcohol. These brothers have been around the block and there’s no pretense here, just fabulous, true Chablis. Production averages 7,500 cases.

Didier and Pascal Picq

Didier Picq is passionate about horses and wine. He loves riding his horse all over the appellation of Chablis, and he’s attended trade shows in the Loire just to taste up on Chenin Blanc. He’s also a nut about Champagne, and he visits domains along the Côte d’Or on a regular basis. Pascal is passionate about tractors and wine. He heads up the vineyard work (Didier heads up the cellar work), and this guy knows tractors like Vince Lombardi knew football. When he’s not in the vines, he’s often with Didier tasting wine.

The domain and its vineyards are in the commune of Chichée, upstream from the town of Chablis and the grand crus in the Serein River Valley. The hills are steep here and are graced with two noble premier crus on either side of the river: Vosgros and Vaucoupin. Vosgros tends to have more weight and fat, while Vaucoupin typically has a lean, mineral profile. Vaucoupin is, with Montée de Tonnerre and Fourchaume, one of the more highly regarded premier crus of the appellation.

Gilbert Picq et ses Fils nursery vines

The fundamental change here happened with the 2006 vintage, when the brothers got a sorting table. This enabled them to control their grape selections to the point where they elected to forgo yeast inoculations. Didier admitted to a number of sleepless nights because the fermentations were consequently much slower than normal, but this resulted in better breadth and textures, and subsequently working with spontaneous yeast fermentations has become the norm chez Picq. No fining, only a light filtration.

Grandfather Picq's military record

The photograph above is of grandfather Picq’s military service record from 1873. Profession: “vigneron.”

Thanks to Jeff Bramwell for shot of nursery vines destined for spring 2017 planting following the frost of 2016.

The Wines

WineBlendDescription
Chablis
ChardonnayNormally this comes from 12 parcels and is invariably chock full of flinty seashell essence, making it a quintessential Chablis.
Chablis Dessus la CarrièreChardonnayThe name translates as "over the quarry," for the two parcels that are reserved for this wine grow above an old quarry in a bed of pure Kimmeridgian limestone, essentially one mammoth roche mère, or mother rock. Both parcels were planted in the 1970s, one with a clone, the other with a sélection massale, and the two cover just under five acres of ground. The layer of top soil is so thin here that there is a dead zone where nothing grows in the center of the parcels. These two parcels are always the first to be harvested by the Picqs, and the last to be bottled.
Chablis VauclaireChardonnayThis is a parcel on the left bank of the Serein River, planted in 1985 and 1986 near Vosgros and Dessus la Carrière. At 1 hectare 65, or 4 acres, it's the Picq's largest appellation Chablis parcel and has, like several other villages parcels, always been vinified and aged separately before blending into the straight Chablis cuvée. Before that blending, Didier habitually held any number of tastings with friends, foremost being Jean-Louis Subtil, neighbor and great friend of the Picqs who taught at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and lived in Chichée until his death in a bike accident. Jean-Louis was a great taster and lover of wine, and he was the first to pick up on Vauclaire's quality. He came to favor it.

Didier bottled Vauclaire separately in Jean-Louis' memory for the first time with vintage 2022. The criteria is the same as for Vaudécorse: it will be bottled separately only if the vintage is both good and productive; otherwise, Vauclaire goes into the villages cuvée. And in those good and productive years, at least half of Vauclaire goes into the villages cuvée to ensure a good quantity of the base cuvée.
Chablis en Vaudécorse
ChardonnayOne parcel of just over two acres planted in 1980 high on the hills on the Serein River's right bank. If a year is both productive and good, then this lieu-dit is bottled separately; otherwise, it used to go into the straight Chablis blend, but beginning with vintage 2021 (a terribly short vintage rather than qualitatively weak) it went into the Vieilles Vignes cuvée.
Chablis Vieilles Vignes

ChardonnayThis comes primarily from two hand-harvested parcels (occasionally up to two other parcels are used) of 80+ year-old-vines totaling 0.77 acres. These vines grow on the high plateau across the ravine from Vaucoupin, and just down a short distance from the Vaudécorse parcel.
Chablis 1er cru Vosgros
ChardonnayThe Picqs have two parcels here totaling 3.5 acres. The larger of the two was planted in the 1960s; the smaller (half the size) was planted in the early 1980s, and both parcels face southwest. Vosgros is on the left bank. Its soil is brown marl limestone, and its wine, young, has a textured plumpness overlying its racy acidity.

As an historical aside, the spelling of Vosgros was only codified in 1938 when the appellation of Chablis was created. Before that, there were various spellings and pronunciations, but a common one, from an old map in Didier’s cellar, was Vaussegros, pronounced vauss-gross, with both s's being hard. This is how their father’s generation referred to the vineyard. These days the s's are silent.
Chablis 1er cru Vaucoupin
ChardonnayThe 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.