Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Grandes Ruchottes’ 2023

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

I met Pierre-Yves when back in 1999 whilst doing vintage at Domaine Bernard-Moreau. Just another of the down to earth lads from the region.

It was funny that drinking a 2016 Bourgogne from him took me to the textures and energy we sought at Yarra Yering. It goes to show just how far Aussie Chardonnay has come and how difficult it can be to distinguish between the two.

The texture of the PYCM wines is outstanding matching the core of fruit. These are exceptional Chardonnays.

Two irreproachable sources of really fine, precise, ageworthy white burgundy are the world-famous Domaine Jean-François Coche-Dury of Meursault and the up-and-coming négociant Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey of Chassagne-Montrachet. A clear sense of evolution is in the air at both… The list of those seeking allocations of Coche white burgundies is already wildly over-subscribed but it may not be too late to secure some Colin-Morey wines. Pierre-Yves, son of Marc Colin, has very much gone his own way, adding carefully to his own vineyards with a small roster of hand-picked growers from whom he buys. His wines are as intense as he is, and he, another Côte de Beaune producer to have moved his wine showroom out of his kitchen to separate premises, seems utterly dedicated to making the wines better every year. JANCIS ROBINSON MW 

The 2023 Vintage at Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey

Even though we started the harvest relatively early, potential alcohols were still strong as they ranged from 12.5 to 13.5% with average acidities. For us, the challenge was to cool down the musts as quickly as possible so they would ferment normally. We did a very long but soft pressing as we wanted to minimize the extraction of potassium from the skins and seeds. Even with our efforts to control the temperatures, both the primary and secondary fermentations finished quickly. We did zero bâtonnage (lees stirring) as we felt as though the wines already had enough flesh and richness. The wines have continued to improve during the élevage and we’re in no hurry to bottle them.” The younger Colin again noted that everything was aged in in 350L barrels and that the wines will be bottled unfined and unfiltered using natural cork and between 45 and 50 ppm of free SO2. Lastly, and as I noted last year in case anyone missed it, Marc Colin, father of Pierre-Yves, made his final vineyard distributions so the domaine is the exceptionally lucky recipient of a tiny parcel of 267 square meters of Montrachet. Depending on the vintage, this should make around 150 bottles annually.

Burghound – Allen Meadows

Pierre-Yves Colin has delivered another successful 2023 vintage, and almost everything I tasted remained un-racked on the lees, undergoing a long élevage in pursuit of more tension and complexity. As ever, picking tends to be on the early side with a view to retaining freshness. As readers may know, Colin’s bigger cuvées are crushed and see four-hour press cycles, whereas smaller cuvées aren’t crushed but see even longer press cycles lasting five or more hours. Vinification and maturation in barrel, with a heavy emphasis on larger-format barrels, follow. As I’ve written before, since moving to his new, much colder cellars in Chassagne-Montrachet’s “zone artisanale,” he finds his wines retain significantly more free sulfur dioxide for any given addition, so a touch less is being used.

William Kelley – The Wine Advocate

About Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey

“The quality Colin is achieving is starting to put him in an elite group and I suspect he will continue to improve. If so, Colin may soon rival for the best micro negociant in Burgundy specializing in whites.”
Burghound, July 2009
Established as one of the young rising stars of Burgundy, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey in 2005 left his family Domaine, Marc Colin, where he gained a solid reputation for his outstanding white wines. Pierre-Yves took control of a share of the family vineyards (Domaine Marc Colin) from 2006 vintage. His first vintages have been made from vineyards and growers that he works closely with buying the wine as must and aging the wines in barrels which he has supplied. If the resulting wines meet his standards the barrels of wine purchased are then matured in his own cold cellar below his house in Chassagne Montrachet.

These wines are produced with natural yeasts, no lees stirring and no filtration that are built to age classically up to 10 years or more.Domaine Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey is based in the wine appellation of Chassagne-Montrachet in Burgundy. The eldest son of Marc Colin, Pierre-Yves worked at the family domaine from 1994 to 2005. Meanwhile, with his wife Caroline (née Morey) he had established a négociant business in 2001 under the name Colin-Morey. After the 2005 harvest he left the family domaine, taking with him his six-hectare share of the vineyards, which now form part of the Colin-Morey label.

Pierre-Yves’s techniques have evolved since leaving the family domaine, in part in response to the problem of premature oxidation. There is no more battonage and the cellar is no longer heated to encourage the malolactic fermentation.

The wines are kept in barrel longer (the barrels are from François Frères and Chassin, with about one third new wood, including 350-litre casks), the St-Aubins being bottled before the next harvest but the remainder being kept on lees for up to 18 months. The bottles are sealed with wax on top of corks which have not been treated with peroxide.

His own vineyards are mostly to be found in the wine appellation of St-Aubin, including premiers crus Chatèniere, Champlots and Remilly, and Chassagne-Montrachet: village Ancegnières and premiers crus Chenevottes and Caillerets.

However, the full range of wines from purchased grapes covers wines from Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault and the grand crus as well, including very fine Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and weightier Bâtard-Montrachet. More recently he has starting making wine from Pernand-Vergelesses, sitting adjacent to Aloxe-Corton. The Grand Cru’s of Corton and Corton-Charlemagne cross the border of the two with parcels in both appellations.

Ref: Jasper Morris MW,  Inside Burgundy – The Book

Where in the World is Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey?

Based in Chassagne-Montrachet, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey has vineyard throughout the Côtes du Beaune. Fruit comes from Pernand-Vergelesses right next to the Grand Cru Corton, Corton, Saint-Aubin, and, the trilogy of Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault.

Find out more about each of these villages in the Wine Bites Magazine.

Pernand-Vergelesses is tucked into the junction of two valleys among the hills of the Côte de Beaune.

The nearby Hill of Corton stands guard over it and two other villages, Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix-Serrigny, harboring prestigious Grands Crus: Corton in red and Corton-Charlemangne in white.

Heading further south you’ll find the four villages Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Saint-Aubin, and, Chassagne-Montrachet clustered together.