Pierre Yves Colin Morey Chassagne Montrachet Vieilles Vignes – 2022

“From holdings on the northern side of the appellation, at the exit of the combe (valley), the 2022 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes delivers aromas of pear, buttered toast, hazelnuts and white flowers, followed by a medium to full-bodied, taut and layered palate that’s underpinned by chalky structure.

The 2022 vintage is another success for Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, in style somewhat reminiscent, at this early stage, of the estate’s 2020s. 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 wrote last year, since moving to his new, much colder cellars in Chassagne-Montrachet, he finds his wines retain significantly more free sulfur dioxide for any given addition, and he now feels he added more than was necessary—given these altered conditions—to his 2015s, 2016s and 2017s. So, some subtle adjustments have now been made in this regard, and readers can expect the wines to be a little less buttoned up out of the gates than has been the case in those three vintages. Now Pierre-Yves has so much space, he’s also thinking about further extending the élevage of his lower appellations; in the next two or three years, he’s contemplating fermenting and maturing them in 350-liter barrels for a year, before racking them to tronconic wooden vats for further time on the lees.” 89-91pts The Wine Advocate