2023 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey St-Aubin 1er Cru "Champlots"

The 2023 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Champlots unwinds in the glass with a gently reductive bouquet of sweet citrus fruit, flowers and peach, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and racy palate, concluding with a bright, saline finish. This site was hit by hail, but you wouldn't know it. Pierre-Yves Colin has delivered another successful 2023 vintage, and almost everything I tasted remained un-racked on the lees, undergoing a long élevage in pursuit of more tension and complexity. As ever, picking tends to be on the early side with a view to retaining freshness. 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, follow. As I've written before, since moving to his new, much colder cellars in Chassagne-Montrachet's "zone artisanale," he finds his wines retain significantly more free sulfur dioxide for any given addition, so a touch less is being used.(WK)

The 2023 Saint-Aubin Les Champlots 1er Cru is a parcel that suffered minor hail damage in July. It has a lively bouquet, perhaps more so than the previous vintage, with crushed limestone, red apples and just a hint of chamomile. The palate is well defined with a slightly honeyed, sun-kissed opening. Melon and grapefruit lead toward a passionfruit-tinged finish. There is just a soupçon of exoticism here.(NM)