2005 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru (Magnum)

Pierre-Yves Colin is as cognizant of the dangers of premature oxidation of white Burgundy as any winemaker I visit, and he appears to be taking every possible step to bottle stable, ageworthy wines. He harvested as early as he could in 2006, beginning on the day of the ban (even though many of his holdings are in Saint-Aubin and are usually later to ripen their fruit). As he regarded the 2006 fruit as fragile, he did virtually no cold-settling of the must, keeping more lees with the wines but then doing no batonnage. And he has moved to later bottling as a rule. "Early bottling of the 2006s would accentuate the fragility of these wines," he explained. He planned to rack the wines in August and then move them into cuve for six months of further aging. He is confident that the second winter will "increase the precision and freshness of these wines and reduce their fruitiness." Happily, Colin's small quantity of negociant wine has been supplemented as of 2006 by four hectares of family-owned vines in Saint-Aubin. Colin believes that vintage 2005 offer more homogeneous quality than 2006, but he feels that the top 2006s are superb and may ultimately prove to have more personality. (A Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)

Colin's deep, cold cave enables him to bottle late, without filtration.Colin does no batonnage and made it clear that he doesn't mind releasing wines that are "strict at the beginning.""The temperature of the cellar descends to about 7oC in the winter, and that has almost the same effect on the wines as an acidification," he told me.When Colin launched his negociant venture in 2001, he bottled barrel by barrel, but he now assembles each wine a day prior to the bottling.In some instances, a wine may not be racked at all until the assemblage.Colin made 45 barrels of white wine in 2004 and a bit more in 2005.With the 2006 vintage, Colin also has four hectares of vines in production, half from his family and mostly in Saint-Aubin premier crus (Pierre-Yves was responsible for vinifying the Marc Colin wines from 1995 until this past November, when he quit to devote full time to his own business.)With the harvest of 2006, he plans to have 80 barrels of domain wine to supplement 50 barrels or so of negociant production.Colin began by showing me his stunning 2004s, which he had poured into carafes an hour or so in advance of our tasting, then gave me an early look at his 2005s, which are uncommonly mineral in character for this very ripe vintage.Colin is very sensitive to the possibility of bitterness in the wines owing to drought, and thus he believes that the 2005s will require a long elevage.He's also confident that they will last well in bottle."They're just about at the limit of ripeness," he told me."I thought the same thing about the 2003s.But these wines were bottled during a cold winter and we ended up with fresh wines."(A Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)