2006 Chevalier Montrachet

Lime, grapefruit, green tea, lemon oil, and chalk dust on the nose mark Colin’s 2006 Chevalier-Montrachet as inhabiting a much cooler and more refreshing realm than his corresponding Batard. Rather than enveloping richness, this delivers a long-lined, refined, subtly yet penetratingly insistent personality. Having not finished its malo-lactic transformation until well after the 2007 harvest, this Chevalier was correspondingly in need of time when I tasted it; speaking of which, it will probably have a felicitous, ten year future. 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

CS One barrique only… A bit of race and minerality on the nose, already very complex. Very tense and nerveux but with good depth too. Really lively. Racy yet deep – green chewy refreshing stuff. Very long. Some delicacy as well as muscles. (JR)

Lime, grapefruit, green tea, lemon oil, and chalk dust on the nose mark Colin’s 2006 Chevalier-Montrachet as inhabiting a much cooler and more refreshing realm than his corresponding Batard. Rather than enveloping richness, this delivers a long-lined, refined, subtly yet penetratingly insistent personality. Having not finished its malo-lactic transformation until well after the 2007 harvest, this Chevalier was correspondingly in need of time when I tasted it; speaking of which, it will probably have a felicitous, ten year future.||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 Wine Advocate.December, 2008