SAINT AUBIN

2017 1er Cru Les Combes Domaine Joseph Colin

EN PRIMEUR

A vineyard next to Chassagne Petingeret, up at the top of the slope in the stones. Quite a big wine, a deeper yellow-gold, with a lovely, almost lush, ripe citrus pulp - lovely and mouthfilling. Totally yummy density, and pinging with fresh acidity and a little saline touch on the finish. Drinking range: 2020 - 2026L&S (Jul 2018)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

The 2017 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Combes is excellent, revealing notes of sweet orchard fruit, white flowers and beeswax, followed by a medium to full-bodied, tangy and tight-knit palate with incisive acids and sneaky length on the finish. Colin notes that this is a very late-ripening site that's typically three weeks behind his most advanced. Drinking range: 2018 - 2028 Rating: 90+ William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jan 2019)

The 2017 Saint-Aubin Les Combes 1er Cru is a little more conservative on the nose compared to the rest of Joseph and Virginie Colin’s 2017s. There is a subtle petrolly note that bobs its head up with aeration. The tensile palate is well balanced and quite energetic on the entry, offering good weight and a spicy finish that lingers nicely in the mouth. Very fine. Drinking range: 2021 - 2034 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)

Joseph Colin is one of the four children of Marc Colin (the others being Pierre-Yves, Damien and Caroline), who had a large domaine with vines in Saint Aubin, Santenay, Chassagne and Puligny. Pierre-Yves left the family domaine in 2005 and after that Joseph was an important member of the team there. After making a token 1800 or so bottles on his own account in 2016, he started in earnest with 2017, with seven hectares of vines, from which he makes an astonishing nineteen different cuvées.

Most of the vines he has in Saint Aubin are young, but by limiting bunches to six or seven per vine, he manages to control the yields. With plenty of time to learn his craft at Domaine Marc Colin, he has developed into a confident winemaker. He experimented with sulphur levels in the wines at the family domaine, so coming to his current view that the wines should be left the longest time possible without added S02, perhaps adding some at racking, but if he feels there's still enough C02 after racking, he will not even add any at that stage, so as to develop 'wine at its purest', but he is keen to say also that he has no standard recipe - he will adapt to each wine. In 2020 he again used no S02 until just before bottling, but he's clear that if there's some botrytis, for example, he will add it earlier. Generally nothing is either fined or filtered. He is very aware of biodynamics, but says that the tides are more important than just the phase of the moon, and that he places less importance on whether it's a fruit or flower day - for him the important thing is not to manipulate a wine when it's tasting good - you must do it when it's not showing well.

Joseph is a very bright new prospect for lovers of precise, pure white Burgundies with fresh acidity and crystalline definition.

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