2006 Batard Montrachet

The Colin 2006 Batard-Montrachet (from 50 year old vines) is gorgeously and exotically scented with very ripe white peach, litchi, and marzipan. Deeply rich and creamy this finishes with mouth-coating tenacity of peach, nut paste, chalk, and white pepper. It will no doubt stand up to at least 6-8 years in the cellar, but it is undeniably seductive even before bottling, and likely to remain so. 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