Winemaker Notes
The 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.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Chablis Au Dessus des Carrières was bottled a couple of weeks prior to my visit after 12 months on the lees and a fermentation that was strung out over 12 months! It has an exquisite, beautifully defined and focused bouquet surfeit with minerals. The palate is very precise, poised, saline and tangy, with a dab of iodine toward the finish. The 2023 is excellent. Barrel Sample: (91-93)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A standout performer, Picq’s 2023 Chablis Dessus la Carrière, sourced from two parcels planted between 1970 and 1973, unfurls in the glass with oceanic notes of oyster shell and warm stones mingled with lemon confit, peach and pear. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied and concentrated yet tensile, laden with mouthwatering acidity and with a crisp core of fruit, before concluding in a long, saline finish. Rating: 92+
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Jasper Morris
Fuller yellow, the nose showing that the bottle has been open a few days. The 2023 is fleshier than the 2024 of course but still exceptionally marine at the back. Just bottled. Very long finish. Drink from 2026-2032. Tasted Jun 2025.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of the most racy, light and tactile, yet uniquely complex Chardonnay, Chablis, while considered part of Burgundy, actually reaches far past the most northern stretch of the Côte d’Or proper. Its vineyards cover hillsides surrounding the small village of Chablis about 100 miles north of Dijon, making it actually closer to Champagne than to Burgundy. Champagne and Chablis have a unique soil type in common called Kimmeridgian, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world except southern England. A 180 million year-old geologic formation of decomposed clay and limestone, containing tiny fossilized oyster shells, spans from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge in southern England all the way down through Champagne, and to the soils of Chablis. This soil type produces wines full of structure, austerity, minerality, salinity and finesse.
Chablis Grands Crus vineyards are all located at ideal elevations and exposition on the acclaimed Kimmeridgian soil, an ancient clay-limestone soil that lends intensity and finesse to its wines. The vineyards outside of Grands Crus are Premiers Crus, and outlying from those is Petit Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, as well as most Premier Cru Chablis, can age for many years.