2005 Saint-Aubin en Rémilly 1er Cru

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)