2012 Chassagne-Montrachet Village

Philippe Colin harvested from September 28 through October 4, finishing before the Saturday rain, explaining that the chardonnay was ripe before the pinot noir in 2013. Grape sugars were in the 12% to 12.5% range and he chaptalized his wines up to one degree. The '13s had been sulfited two weeks before my visit. Colin describes this vintage as classic; at the outset he feared making rather cutting wines in the style of the 2007s but now finds the wines to be more open and aromatic than he would have predicted. Colin, who is not a fan of sharply reduced crop levels in chardonnay, told me that a yield of around 50 hectoliters per hectare normally provides good balance; he made about 30 in 2012 and potential alcohol levels were a very ripe 13.5% to 13.7%. Colin describes his 2012s as "mid-term agers that need to gain in freshness and definition." He's not yet convinced that they are sufficiently chiseled to be outstanding.

"Very rich but not like the 2009s," said Philippe Colin about the young 2012s this spring. "The '12s are more robust and masculine, with more nervosite but without austerity. But even if they're serious wines they will be approachable young due to their fruit." The hail did not have a big impact on ripeness, he went on, and he picked his parcels in their normal order, with potential alcohols in the healthy 12.5% to 13% range (most of the 2012s will be bottled around 13.5%). Colin continues to age his wines in about 25% new oak but now nearly half of his barrels are 450- and 500-liter foudres, which he believes results in earlier and better integration of oak. The malolactic fermentations had finished and the wines had been sulfited at least a month before my visit. Incidentally, Colin is now sealing half of his corks with beeswax and believes that this measure will result in "better regularity" from bottle to bottle.