2007 St Aubin Blanc La Chatenieres

From two roughly 40 year old parcels, Colin’s 2007 Saint-Aubin Les Chateniere comes from a vineyard in which mother chalk lies a mere ten centimeters below the surface. The result is wine to which he accurately ascribes “purity and rectitude,” yet with a quite different expression of things mineral than accrued to the Champlots. Pure pear and white peach aromas and juicy fruit essences are tinged with lemon zest, white pepper, and cardamom. Silken and subtly oily in texture, with underlying suggestions of peach kernel, peat, and sea salt, this finishes invigoratingly and positively pulling at the salivary glands. A crystal clear, refreshing, and uplifting Saint-Aubin, it will probably be worth following for 4-5 years. 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; also imported by 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

Same slope as Champlots but even closer to Puligny. More readable than the Champlots but still penetrating and very pure. A little bit of ripeness of fruit more evident with time in the glass. Fuller in the mouth. (JH)