The 2010 Chassagne-Montrachet Caillerets bursts from the glass with an intense, explosive personality. Layers of finely sculpted fruit give way to clean, mineral notes on the crystalline finish. A hint of oak lingers, but there is plenty of time for the wine to come together. Anticipated maturity: 2016+. Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey is one of Burgundy’s most exciting young producers. Colin-Morey works with six hectares of vineyards, three of which are estate owned, while the rest are sources of purchased fruit. According to Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, the key to 2009 was picking early. The harvest started on the September 4. Colin-Morey did a long, slow press, with no batonnage once the wines were in barrel, all with the aim of preserving as much freshness as possible given the natural ripeness of the fruit. Roughly 80% of the wines were aged in 350-liter barrels, larger than the norm in Burgundy. Colin-Morey finished bottling the 2009s in April 2011. Colin-Morey told me he wasn’t enthused about the 2009s at first, but now thinks the wines have enough freshness to age well.A Daniel Johnnes Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

Colin’s 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet Caillerets offers a fascinating contrast and dynamic counterpoint of enervating brightness with satiny, borderline creamy texture; and of high-toned pit fruit and herbal distillates, luscious citrus, white peach, and liquid honeysuckle perfume with chalky, smoky mineral (and lees- and oak-inflected) elements. Superbly refined, with its rich fruit utterly transparent to myriad mineral and floral and herbal nuances, this finishes with a fine alliance of refreshment and complexity. Look for it to be even more satisfying in a couple of years, and to justify 6-8 total in bottle. Pierre-Yves Colin – who openly pledges allegiance to Riesling virtues – does more than just talk the talk of achieving ripe fruit at low levels of potential alcohol. Finished alcohols in his collection – after half a percent or so of chaptalization – range from a (for modern times almost astonishing) 11.75% up to 12.75%. “I really can’t say,” he confesses, “why so many growers were getting fruit of 12.5% or more potential alcohol already at the end of August,” ten days before Colin even began picking, but he can say he doubts their fruit tasted ripe then! Half of the acreage he accesses is in Saint-Aubin – naturally conducive to later ripening – and was not picked until past mid-September this year. Colin believes in minimal settling, by gravity, and retaining lots of lees, but not in actively working them; favors rapid pressing, and 350- (one-third new) over 225-liter barrels; and welcomes late and protracted malo-lactic conversions – although this vintage's malos were completed by the following June. He bottled his Saint-Aubin crus at just over a year; his other premier crus this past March; and the grands crus (of which I was unfortunately unable to taste the Chevalier-Montrachet) in May, sealing them all with wax, in the belief that this will provide extra protection against harmful oxygen ingress.For myriad further details on this relatively new estate and its rapidly-growing family of wines – nearly half of which are from contract fruit – readers are urged to consult my report in issue 180, where – having up until then not seen a label – I inadvertently left-off the “-Morey” from the winery nameA Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300; also imported by Atherton Wine Imports, Menlo Park, CA, tel. (650) 328-6639

Bosc pear, baked apple, marjoram, and fresh lime on the nose of Colin’s 2006 Chassagne-Montrachet Caillerets lead to richly-textured and ripe, yet decidedly alkaline, chalky and refreshingly citrus-tinged palate. This lingers with memorable refinement and genuine mineral intrigue, giving every indication of justifying at least 5-7 years in bottle. In 2005, Marc Colin presided over a division of his estate among his four children, and Pierre-Yves Colin – who had worked at his father’s estate since 1995 and had been making a few barrels of his own from purchased grapes since 2001 – elected to strike out on his own, bottling in his inaugural vintage of 2006 a considerable range of wines in small lots – not all of which I tasted – both from his inheritance in Saint-Aubin and Chassagne and from (presently 30%) contract fruit (largely picked by picked by his own team) in Meursault and Puligny. (He employs the same label for both groups of wines). Colin is one of Burgundy’s unabashed admirers of Riesling, and while he believes in a long elevage for his wines, he does not stir their lees (yet his wines are flatteringly creamy in texture) and professes unconcern as to whether his wines complete malolactic fermentation. (Although I taste no indication that any of these 2006s failed to complete their malo, there is no question most are noticeably bright.) Colin overwhelmingly favors 350-liter barrels over standard (228- or 225-liter) barriques for the freshness and clarity he believes they confer, and even his less prestigious appellations receive 30-50% new wood. Like many in Chassagne, he felt comfortable delaying the commencement of his 2006 harvest until September 21, yet most of the resultant wines hover on either side of 13% alcohol.A Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300; also imported by Atherton Wine Imports, Menlo Park, CA, tel. (650) 328-6639