Val de Mer (Patrick Piuze)

Val de Mer is Patrick Piuze’s second winery, co-owned with Moutard-Diligent. The winemaking is very similar to his own, eponymous line: both are hand-harvested, both are spontaneously fermented, and the élèvage is the same  (used barrels for 1er Cru and Grand Cru and tanks on entry-level.)

However, there are distinct differences. The fruit for the Val de Mer wines does not come from the same vineyards. They are produced in a separate winery- Val de Mer is in Tonnerre- and is an above-ground cellar, so the wines take the temperature of the season during aging. Lastly, you could say that Val de Mer is a more traditional Chablis winery in the way that the wines are bottled, favoring broader representations of the vineyards. For Val de Mer, the entry level Villages wine is a blend, compared to Piuze where his Villages Chablis are bottled separately by village; and, where Piuze has a Vaillon 1er Cru “les Minots”- les Minots being the specific parcel- Val de Mer simply has a Vaillons 1er Cru.