2007 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

The Colin 2007 Batard-Montrachet -- from centrally-located 50 year old vines – positively crawls up the nostrils in its intense amalgam of pit fruit distillate; smoky black tea; lemon and grapefruit; and heliotrope. Citrus traverses the palate like an electric current, enlivening a dense concentrate of lightly caramelized peach, nut paste, and chalk, that is almost custard-like in texture. This finishes with tremendous force and grip. Like the corresponding Corton-Charlemagne, I have the feeling that it could exhibit something of a split personality on any given day in its youth. Today, all cylinders are certainly firing – and nearly in sync – even if the result is more formidable than loveable. Give this a few years – if you are lucky enough to acquire some bottles – and I would not be surprised to see it reward a decade of attention. 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 name A Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300;Atherton Wine Imports, Menlo Park, CA, tel. (650) 328-6639 and Bertin Henri Selections, 10900 N.W. 21st Street, Unit 180, Doral, Florida 33172 tel: (305) 343-4054

Pale yellow. Very sexy aromas of orange blossom, oily peach, pineapple and smoky lees. At once thick and bracing, with outstanding concentration and layered texture. This huge wine shows strong vanillin oak and outstanding sucrosite that no doubt had a lot to do with the fact that it only finished fermenting its sugars in December of 2008. The parcel is in Chassagne-Montrachet, but at the border with Puligny. Incidentally, Colin sealed his 2007s with soft wax capsules in an attempt to give his bottles additional protection against oxidation.

A hugely complex nose trimmed in subtle wood toast that is easily the most complex wine in the range with ripe, pure and elegant aromas of rose petal, white peach, lemon zest and spice hints that continue onto the gorgeously textured and classy broad-shouldered flavors that possess excellent mid-palate fat and buckets of dry extract on the relatively refined, mouth coating and palate staining finish that goes on and on. The aspect of this wine that amazes me isn't so much the power or muscle but rather the fine detail and overall balance. In sum, a very refined and graceful Bâtard.