2013 Chassagne-Montrachet Village

According to Philippe Colin's assistant Géraldine Lochet, 2014 brought "a lovely balance of tartaric and malic acidity," and the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentation. The grapes were harvested with potential alcohol between 12.5% and 13% and the wines were lightly chaptalized, "but not more than 0.5%." Only Chevalier-Montrachet was affected by hail in 2014, Lochet added, and Colin made the permitted yield for the rest of his cuvées. The malos mostly finished by Christmas, with the rest ending by the beginning of February, and Colin stirred the lees every ten days until Christmas (he was still stirring the Chevalier-Montrachet at the end of May).

According to Lochet, Colin likes the 2013s for their tautness but believes that they will need time in bottle. Yields were good in 2013, noted Lochet. "We were lucky in Chassagne-Montrachet," she said.

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.