2007 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Pierre-Yves Colin has supplemented his production with several more hectares of vines from the family domain in Saint-Aubin. He uses a single label for all of his bottlings but points out that there's now more estate than negociant wine. Colin describes the 2007s as very minerally, pungent wines with very good length. He had planned to start picking on August 25, then decided to wait until September 1, and then delayed again until September 7, as he was seeking the best possible combination of sugars and acids. With each delay, said Colin, he had to change his team of pickers. At the end of May, Colin showed me the wines that had finished their malos and sugar fermentations, plus the Chevalier and Batard. The 2006s remained in barrel until August of 2007, then were racked into tanks, where most of them remained until they were bottled in March and April of this year. Colin had poured my samples of 2006s into carafes several hours before I tasted them, but a few of them remained minty and reduced (Colin uses generous doses of SO2 at bottling). "I looked for finesse in 2006; it was almost too easy to get fat," Colin told me, adding that he does almost no batonnage. "I was worried about the fruit in 2006, but the wines are now a pleasant surprise." Incidentally, Colin is now using wax capsules for his export bottles, which he told me now comprise fully 90% of his production. (A Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)