“We also talked of this history of the Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey label, and that bears reiterating here to help readers better understand these wines. In its inception, this was a négociant label, with Pierre-Yves depositing empty (new) barrels with his suppliers and collecting them when they had been filled: in 2001, he debuted with six barrels; in 2002, 12, and by 2005, the last year of exclusively négociant production, fully 28 barrels. Since then, Pierre-Yves has gradually augmented his Domaine holdings, beginning with his 13-hectare share of Domaine Marc Colin and supplemented by seven hectares inherited by his wife, Caroline Morey. Concomitantly, his purchases as a négociant have diminished; and when he does buy, he prefers (quite naturally) to buy in fruit than in must. Some of the parcels whose grapes he purchases, he farms, as is the case with his Bâtard-Montrachet, Corton-Charlemagne and some of his communal Meursault cuvée. And sometimes, even if he doesn't farm the parcel, it's his team that picks at harvest time: this is the case for his Meursault Perrières. Purchased grapes, it's worth noting, are never vinified together with Domaine fruit, so every cuvée consists of either one or the other. In resumé, then, this is the story of a négociant label that has become more and more of a Domaine—and not remotely the reverse, a claim I recently overheard (and contradicted) .... The 2020 vintage is another very promising year for Pierre-Yves Colin, who finds the wines a bit more charming and demonstrative than the more serious, structured 2019s — the latter a vintage we revisited in bottle and which appears to possess considerable aging potential. As readers may know, Colin's bigger cuvées are crushed and see four-hour press cycles, whereas smaller cuvées aren't crushed but see even longer press cycles lasting five or more hours. Vinification and maturation in barrel, with a heavy emphasis on larger-format barrels, follows …. Now Pierre-Yves has so much space, he's also thinking about further extending the élevage of his lower appellations: in the next two or three years, he's contemplating fermenting and maturing them in 350-liter barrels for a year, before racking them to tronconic wooden vats for further time on the lees.” William Kelley, Wine Advocate
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