2012 St Aubin Blanc La Chatenieres

The 2012 Saint Aubin 1er Cru La Chateniere comes from limestone soils. It had already been bottled. It has a crisp, granitic bouquet with dewy green apple and fresh lime – tight at the moment but sure to open with bottle age. The palate is rounded, slightly viscous on the entry with good acidity. This feels plush in the mouth with touches of peach and lemongrass furnishing the finish. Fine. This domaine was one of my regular ports of call when visiting Burgundy and that does not change now. It was a pleasure to meet Damien Colin again. He runs the winery in the village of Gamay (what came first, village or grape?) with his brother Joseph who works mainly in the vineyard and Caroline more on the “admin” side. Their elder brother, Pierre-Yves can be found over in Chassagne having set up on his own after the 2005 vintage. I have always liked these wines for their straightforwardness, their direct approach. There is no messing about here: just simple winemaking tenets applied throughout their diverse portfolio at the heart of which lie several choice premier cru vineyards in Saint Aubin. In recent vintages there has been a concerted effort to replicate the wines of their father with slightly earlier picking to capture acidity as well as minimal batonnage and I think they do that well. These wines might not offer the fireworks that Pierre-Yves manages to conjure, but there is something “true” about them that I always like. Damien repeated the oft-heard tales of woe that beset vignerons during the growing season, which severely impacted his grand crus. The harvesters trooped into the vineyard on 19 September. “I never harvested such ripe grapes at those acidity levels,” remarked Damian, with most wines coming in at around 12.5%. Unfortunately, yields across the board were 50% down and both their Batard-Montrachet and Montrachet were reduced down to a half-barrel each. The sensitive nature of the vinification meant that I did not taste them. The application of new oak is prudent, this year nearly all the premier crus furnished with 15% new wood. Importer: no known importer in the United States, though available through most UK merchants.