2001 Chevalier Montrachet

One of the finest wines of the vintage, Colin-Morey’s 2001 Chevalier-Montrachet boasts an aromatic profile of buttered pears, white flowers, spices, and minerals. Medium-bodied, big, suave, sexy, and powerful, it is an oily-textured behemoth, particularly given the fact that its terroir has the propensity for lace-like wines. In addition, this fleshy, sensual offering has a stunningly long, pure finish. Drink it over the next 6-7 years. Talk about garage wines... there are only between 265 and 275 bottles of each of these wines. Pierre-Yves Colin has begun this microscopic negociant firm “to do all the crazy things I cannot do at the family estate, here I can take risks that I’d never do with my family’s wines. In addition, here I’m working with tiny quantities, so hand bottling is easy.” Colin’s modus operandi is to place barrels at the estates of vignerons whose wines he appreciates at harvest, then, if he likes the result, he picks them up to finish their elevage. In 2001 he dropped 8 barrels off and purchased only six, the other two growers kept the barrels and the wine. Batonnage takes place once a week and the wines are fined but not filtered, then bottled by hand. Interestingly, I found a minty, pine-cone characteristic in almost all of these wines (the Chevalier was the exception), something I haven’t encountered in Burgundy before. For those interested in Burgundian minutia, the “Morey” in the name of this company is due to the fact that Pierre-Yves Colin is married to the daughter of Jean-Marc Morey of Chassagne-Montrachet. Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185