Tasted with Joseph Colin in St.Aubin, 24 October 2023.
Domaine Joseph Colin
21 Rue des Lavières
21190 St.Aubin
Tel: +33 3 80 21 98 76
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Joseph on 2023:
“2023 – I’m really very happy and at least analytically, they are a close match to 2022. Let’s see if they have the same energy when they have gone through elevage.”
Joseph on 2022:
“We had a good harvest, not a big harvest – some of my friends said they had ‘big’ – but here not more than 50 hl/ha, so similar to 2020 with perhaps a similar style – but clearly not 60 hl/ha like in 2018… I was scared of sur-maturity but in the end, we still needed to wait for a little on the limestone soils. It was really just the fermentations that bothered me – it was stressy as even in January I had some cuvées with 8-10° of remaining sugar. The cellar is humid and cold and it was my first vintage in this new cellar – 23 was certainly easier – I think the change in the environment (the cellar) made this difference. We didn’t have this current balance to the wines in July, it has come in the last months and after the first addition of sulfur! I made my first vintage in 1993 and I ask myself what other vintage has offered such delicious, balanced wines in both colours right at the start! It’s a vintage with a balance that allows you to drink warmer or cooler without affecting the wine too much.”
The wines…
An absolute pleasure – so many great wines and my distinctions between great and excellent/love are so fine and mobile at this domaine. Given that all DIAM sealed, if I was starting out again – here would be prime source of great wine!!!
Le Red:
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles-Vignes
2 parcels – in the plain. 80% destemmed, not much pigeage as Joseph prefers a remontage so as not to extract too much from the stems. Racked 1 month earlier – bottling in the next month. A little wc but only selected bunches.
Fresh aroma with red fruited direction – some cherry-stone impression here – fine! Fresh flavoured too, lovely energy, not a deep concentrated wine but still one of deep joy – it’s completely delicious and even a little saline in the finish. Faintly chalky finish. Excellent Chassagne! villages
Les Whites:
11.5 to 12° works fine here – it loses energy if you go further than that. In 2022 I harvested 8 September (our harvest started 25 August) and this was one of the last harvested. This the only bottled wine right now. Harvested, as I like, just at 12°! Part foudre and part old barrel elevage.
Narrow but wonderfully vibrant and citrussy – one of the best aligoté noses this year. Good volume, energy and open juicy flavour. This is simply a great aligoté
2022 Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Hautes de la Combes
The cuvée name mixing the two lieu dits in the commune of Chassagne and Puligny. No fining, though the wines are filtered, in general.
Still fine but much less open. Incisive, delicious – broad – très mineral. Fresh, cool stones over the palate. Yes!
‘Or the 7 terroirs for the US.’ 9 parcels in 7 different terroirs.
A hint more breadth – complex, modest zesty impression too. In the mouth there is more energy and interest than the Bourgogne today, silky textured and juicy finishing. Great villages in the making…
2022 St.Aubin 1er Clos du Meix
Together with Olivier Lamay the two producers of this cru. The last harvested in 2022.
Slightly more honied. Hmm – more direct, incisive – focus, grapefruit complexity – ooh that’s wonderful. Only a nose short of great today!
2022 St.Aubin 1er Sur le Sentier de Clous
Another small step up in aromatic clarity and citrus complexity. Mineral, good breadth but here is depth too. Again with silkiness – a little more contemplative but still with some juicy energy. Great finishing – yes! It’s another great tasting chez Joseph!
2022 St.Aubin 1er Les Frionnes
‘In terms of altitude and slope this is a match for Chassagne Caillerets’
A higher-toned breadth of yellow citrus/skin – faintly floral here too. Hmm – a more grapefruit agrume complexity – the first wine where I’d say ‘give it some time’ yet the finish is absorbingly delicious and intense. Yes!
A young vine – 8 years old. A steep and cold vineyard – all on high here but often the first 1er to be harvested.
More direct and finer aromas with a faint citrus fizz. Extra energy and cool palate – so juicy – so complex – actually I’d possibly want this to calm a little – but what a wine!!! The best, most sustained, finish of all so far!
2022 St.Aubin 1er Sous Roche Dumay
In the Gamay sector near Chatenière – ‘these days with these white soils that see the late afternoon sun – it’s where we now harvest first together with Dents du Chein and Remilly – before Chassagne!’
Not a large nose today but one of fine silky attractiveness. Hmm, more calm but still incisive and direct – the flavours broaden over the palate with silky but steely acidity too. Another great finish – this time much more saline and impressively intense.
Moving to the hillside of Montrachet from the village of St.Aubin now:
‘I think this a proper resume of what I hope to find in a SA 1er’
A nose that resembles the previous though here there are some more floral tones too. Broad and energetic – vibrant – involving energetic acidity – almost a sherbet aspect – this will calm when bottled with less CO2 but it’s a great ride today. Just the right balance between the previous 2 wines – and great!
From all 3 sectors including the high, the plateau and the Remilly or Corton section
Here is a more direct nose, today with some extra clarity too. In the mouth we have concentration/density but delivered with silken texture and a slowly growing acid-led intensity. Here is the balance. More contemplative but more of just about everything else too – great finishing!
0.80 ha but just one larger barrel – The lowest yield of the domaine in 22 – ‘the vines are just onto the rock here – so almost half the yield.’
The most open and wide nose – it’s a beauty with fine yellow citrus energy. The depth and concentration of the last with a more incisive minerality – a balancing minerality. Great wine – really great!
2022 St.Aubin 1er Les Pitangerets
Previously a blend with Combe that took that name but no Combes in it now so – Pitangerets
A nose that references the Chien – without the width of that wine but with more depth. I sense a hint of oak for the first time but here is also a fine and incisive start – complex, really zesty but hardly with any tannic texture – but finishing the most zesty.
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet
From 3 different parcels close to 1er and grand crus.
Only a little extra width but so airy and and elegant – a beauty. Fuller much more generous and concentrated – fortunately still with fine juicy balance – but another world. Less long as the last of the St.Aubins but a delicious, involving wine – not to mention an excellent villages.
2022 Puligny-Montrachet Le Trezin
A smaller nose once more but with a fine energetic core of fruit. Plenty of concentration but here the energy is higher, indeed sizzling in the finish – yes, tension 😉 Actually that’s sneakily longer than the Chassagne too!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er La Garenne
Airy again but with such a fine clarity – this is a beauty! Steely concentration here – there is fine lithe muscle propelling these flavours. Proper class and insinuation finishing flavour – so long. Love!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er En Chenevottes
A more open nose of citrus and floral complexity – beguiling! A hint towards the grapefruit style again but with more sweetness and other agrume complexity. Then poof – a great finishing width from a small explosion of flavour. Love that again!
Mainly 100-year-old vines – ‘a few replacements but they don’t offer many grapes as they are planted directly on the rocks, still, 25 hl/ha in a decent (non-frosted!) vintage’
A super fine direct beam of citrus clarity – oh! In the mouth we have brilliant clarity – a wine of precision of minerality and yes, even some citrus fruit. This texture is impeccable. There have been a number of more energetic wines in the finish but I think this great, great wine!
Only about 5 producers, below Batard and Criots – a quite windy area so practically never any botrytis here – relatively deep soil – in this case older vines – planted in 1948 but despite the wind an early ripening place. ‘Vide Bourse has a more alcoholic impression, very like Bâtard.’
Also fine and direct – a wonderful purity – better than the Caillerets? Let’s see. Extra depth – a wine of width of extra complexity – it’s certainly like a wine from a different place – it has nothing to do with Caillerets but has plenty to do with Bâtard. Clearly great and less haughty than the Caillerets today.
Barrel sample
Only a little extra aromatic width vs the Vide Bourse. More precise, incisive and cool, perhaps, after the Vide Bourse. Wonderful texture and sinuous delivery of flavour. More contemplative and strong finishing than the VB – here you see the next level – great Bâtard!
2022 Montrachet
First vintage in the domaine – family vines planted in 1931 & 1932 such a small cuvée so made in glass but moved from time to time to ensure some oxygen contact.
Narrow but deep aromas with some citrus skin complexity. Full generous, concentrated wine. Really late in this very long finish come some citrus skin bitters – the texture too. Wait 10 years for sure – ‘All are in diam 30 – it means I can make sure my sulfur levels are the same for all wines.‘