2016 Saint-Aubin La Chatenière 1er Cru

Pierre-Yves Colin told me that at harvest it was impossible to see the difference between first- and second-generation grapes. That made it risky to choose a compromise date for the harvest, he added, and it was also the reason why he didn’t pick too early in ’16 (he began on September 22). “I wanted to give the second-generation grapes a chance to get ripe enough,” he explained, “and thanks to the warm summer they were able to mostly catch up.” Still, grape sugars and acidity levels were lower than in 2017, and Colin chaptalized most of his wines by 0.3% or 0.4% “to extend the fermentations and get more fat.” He also believes that extending the élevage helped him "get rid of the exotic side of the vintage." Colin told me that today the 2016s remind him a bit of the 2008s, which he says are starting to come around, so he thinks that the better ‘16s need eight to ten years of cellaring.

Colin typically assembles his wines just three weeks before bottling and prefers to do a long élevage; he told me he likes "the old approach" of leaving the wines on their lees in barrel in a cold cellar for 18 to 20 months—i.e., through two winters. And he’s not a fan of racking wines into tanks for further élevage prior to bottling as he much prefers the way the wines evolve in barrels. "Stainless steel tanks don't bring any evolution to the wines; the wines don’t really continue their lives and they can take on a metallic quality," he explained. "This is probably a better option than early bottling—for example, it can give the grower more time to manage the SO2 level in a wine—but it doesn’t really add much."

“I’ll always remember the extreme 2016 growing season,” said Pierre-Yves Colin at the beginning of June. “It was amazing that we were able to make wine from every vineyard. We started from zero after the frost and we thought some vineyards would give nothing.” Colin began harvesting on September 22, with what he described as low potential alcohol between 11.5% and 12.5%. “The ripeness was difficult to get and it arrived at the end. The summer warmth ripened the second-generation fruit. This was unhoped-for but we took all of it. From the most affected vineyards, the wines are half first- and half second-generation fruit.”

“It’s not an unripe vintage, as in 2007 and 2004,” Colin emphasized. “The fruit character is more citrus than stone fruits. And the vintage is more mineral than 2015 in terms of its freshness at the beginning. Some of the best 2016s remind me of the 2010s. The bad thing for growers in 2016 is the low quantities, not the quality of the wines.” The alcoholic fermentations were slow, and the first malo didn’t finish until March; 95% of the Colin ‘16s were finished and sulfited by the time of my visit, although Colin has reduced his sulfur additions as his large new cellar is cooler than the one under his home in the center of the village. “We’re getting more texture, minerality and cleanness with élevage to this point," he pointed out.

Colin, who considered the 2015s to be outstanding from the beginning, nonetheless noted that the wines changed dramatically during their last months of élevage. He had originally planned to bottle them in February but delayed the bottling date twice for his crus not from Saint-Aubin, as the wines were gaining in energy. He considers 2015 to be a classic vintage and better then 2014 for the long haul. “The ‘15s totally resist oxidation after you uncork them,” he noted.