In the vineyard
Joseph Colin has 6.5 hectares of his own (inherited from the family domaine), but also works with growers to make a small parcel of both Bâtard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru.
The domaine vineyards include some Bourgogne Blanc; village Saint-Aubin, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet; as well as a range of Premiers Crus in Saint-Aubin (including En Remilly, Chatenière, Frionnes and Clos du Meix), Puligny-Montrachet (La Garenne) and Chassagne-Montrachet (Les Chevenottes, Vide Bourse and Les Caillerets), almost all dedicated exclusively to Chardonnay.
Work in the vineyard is all by hand with no chemicals used and organic products used where possible. He works with low yields, with as little as six or seven bunches per vine. Picking decisions are made purely on taste.
In the winery
When it comes to the winemaking, Colin’s philosophy is to do very little. The fruit is whole-bunch pressed with no sulphur added, the must settled and put straight to barrels. Fermentation is all with indigenous yeast, with new oak limited to around 10 to 15% (just to ensure there are enough barrels in the cellar) and no bâtonnage.
He racks the wines only once to blend the wine (doing so via gravity rather than using a pump), or not at all if there is only one barrel of the wine. There’s no filtering or fining, and he only adds sulphur if he feels it is absolutely necessary, believing that it cloaks the terroir and means consumers have to wait to enjoy the wines.
The winemaking is consistent across the range to try and ensure that the wines are a pure translation of their terroir.