Tasted in Chassagne-Montrachet, 16 November 2016, with Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey.
SARL Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey
Chemin du Puits Merdreaux
ZA Le Haut des Champs
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 21 90 10
Pierre-Yves on 2016::
“2016 was complicated, of-course. It didn’t start well; the frost was worst in my vines in St.Aubin and Chassagne, and by May the re-growth was pretty much non-existent. Afterwards we did have some nice dry weather. It was complicated for maladies too, so given all that, we never expected to harvest grapes of such quality – and really the quality is there – there’s not exceptional maturity, but to get 11-11.5° in the frosted areas was quite an achievement.
“In Morgeot it was a normal harvest but we harvested less than half of normal in other 1er crus. St.Aubins Remilly & Chatonnière lost 50%, some others in St.Aubin lost 75%. Overall we made less than 50% of a normal yield, yet I can say that I’m satisfied. I don’t believe in miracles but we ‘saved the furniture.'”
Pierre-Yves on 2015:
“Apart from in Bâtard and Chassagne Encegnières where we saw 13° we were never much more than 12° when we picked. Thought we planned to start our harvest on the 28 August, I decided that it was really too warm so we waited until the 1st of September.”
The wines…
All the malos are done, but the wines are all still in barrel. Pierre-Yves really wanted to do this tasting later, and it’s clear that his wines are a little less down the elevage route than some other addresses – this affects the clarity and precision of the wines – yet the intrinsic quality here puts this as one of the top white burgundy cellars in 2015. I noted that, like in 2014, there was much less of the overt reductive agrume aroma of previous vintages tasted at this time of year.
From vines in the communes of Puligny and St.Aubin.
Pretty, wide, lemon, and some sulfur. Bright, fresh, live and interesting. A fine, bright wave of flavour…. sweet citrus. Really tasty wine, and given the label, it is easy to highlight!
2015 St.Aubin Les Pucelles
First harvest in 2013 from 40 year-old vines that came from PYCM’s aunt.
Also a little whiff of sulfur. A nicely textured citrus too. Also bright, almost pointed, a wine with really fine energy and line. A little salinity here, a little mineral finishing too. Very tasty.
A blend of multiple parcels, but all from this same villages lieu-dit, with 3 generations of vines. In totality, this is the largest parcel of the domain at over 1 hectare. The second villages cuvée, all staying in barrel for now.
Silkier, yellow citrus. More mineral, but more focus too. Bravo so much detail on display.
2015 St.Aubin 1er Les Champlots
A wide nose, lemon again, a little more composed and silky. More depth, more texture, then a bright and fine mid-palate and finishing intensity. Super!
2015 St.Aubin 1er Chatonnière
A little more herb on the nose. Really much more mineral in the mouth, very different, only slowly opening with a fine clarity of mid-palate, fruit and mineral flavour. Very long, still more mineral, less citrus complexity. A super and mineral wine that really delivers.
Normally made from three parcels but the highest sited vines, 27-year-old vines’ ripening was, for a time, bLocked by the dryness so that parcel went into the bourgogne. ‘The whiter soils of St.Aubin really suffer when there’s dry heat.’
A silky nose, just a little yellow. Also very mineral, but here with a little more sweetness of fruit. A great and intense line of flavour here. Really long wine. Bravo!
2015 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Encegnières
The oldest chardonnay vines of the domaine – always an early harvest. ‘These vines, just under Bâtard, have a reserve, so dont usually suffer with the heat.’
Wide, modest yellow fruit but this is very inviting. Ooh, mineral but sweetly mouth-watering and just a little fat to the fine texture. Very fine mid-palate and finishing flavour; bright and very mouth-watering but with no sharp edges. Really excellent.
A parcel bought in 2013, 2014 was the first vintage from these 50-year-old vines. From the high part of the vineyard.
A fine herb with flowers, it has quite a generous nose. Big wine, real volume and concentration, slowly mouth-watering. What a big but perfectly balanced thing. Also here I have to say bravo!
This was a later finishing malo.
A clean nose, a complex mix of herbs and softness. Ooh, this is beautiful, more of a line than a width of flavour, and with a very fine mouth-watering flavour at that. Much as I admired that last wine, this is the one I’d drink today! Fabulous, tasty length.
Parcel from parents towards the top. ‘It’s my reference for all the other wines, never high alcohol, never low. The 79 was at least as good as my dad’s Montrachet that year.’
A vibrant nose, floral, deep. Quite big, actually very big, but supple, transparent, complex and mineral – just about everything actually. Great wine.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er La Garenne
Another new wine from 2013, from PY’s aunt. 85 year-old vines that delivered 3×350 litres
Here is the slightly reductive agrume. Very silky, mineral, a little flesh, but with beautiful detail. Slowly citrus fading… simply top wine… faintly tannic at the end.
2015 Meursault Narvaux
Not so wide but a beautiful depth of faintly reduced and pretty citrus elements. Vibrant, fresh flavour – slowly widening and becoming a more reductive and mineral wine in the mid-palate. A little explosion of finishing flavour, with a hint more oak in this finish.
From the top, touching Perrières.
This has a very nice and inviting nose – fresh and deep – clean too. Big, but fresh, faintly saline, but not at all faintly complex – really lots going on here. Wow – bravo – class! Easily my favourite so-far in the tasting!
2015 Meursault 1er Genevrières
A little deeper aroma, a little more ginger-spiced. Super classic. This is fresh and with a super line of citrus and a ginger infused clarity of flavour that’s actually a little austere than most Genevrières but the parts are all compelling. Really super wine here.
2015 Meursault 1er Les Perrières
PY’s Perrières is from the lower part of the vineyard, his Genevrières from the higher part – they have virtually the same position (height) on the Meursault hillside.
Cold in the glass this is a little mute, swirl and it starts to get exciting – modest but very complex fresh notes. Mineral yet also with more weight. Big and mouth-watering, but an even bigger burst of mid-palate flavour. Super persistent. Very fine…
2 parcels, 1 in Pernand, the other in Aloxe but almost in Ladoix. ‘I’ve made this since 03 and it’s not every year that I’ve seen such beautiful grapes. In 15 there’s a grand cru side to this wine that I don’t see every year in Charlemagne – but that’s the vigneron speaking, proud of the slightly golden grapes…’
Here is a vibrant nose. Beautiful taut muscle, deep and growing wider, a wine that’s tightly wound but really bursts with fresh flavour in the mid-palate. Simply excellent wine. Bravo!
From the middle of Chevalier, from both the height and width of the vineyard.
Also a little aromatic vibration but spread over more width. A little more gas, but what a volume in the mouth, cool, mineral, faintly oaked (only the second wine to show a little oak flavour) in the mid-palate. Massive width and persistence too. Special stuff.
Chassagne side, one parcel. An old parcel of 70 year-old vines. Lost 70% of this in 2016.
A big, mineral and complex nose – this is just fabulous stuff. Big, muscled but not really fat as there’s a bubbling undertow of acidity, complex and a little floral with lots of citrus in the middle. Just a beautiful finishing flavour.
The reds..
Actually there’s only one!
2015 Santenay
From Champs Claude, under Morgeot’s Cardeuse, planted across the hill. Over 100 years old vines. Half individual berries, half whole cluster fermentation. ‘It’s for the amusement, each year I think about pulling it out but then decide not – it’s not economic but it’s history…’
Round, a little diffuse but an inviting nose all the same. Big, structured, fresh and deeply flavoured – just a little mid-palate reduction. Oooh this is good! If you see it, buy it – strawberry fruit inflected by whole clusters…