2017 Meursault, Perrières, 1er Cru, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, Burgundy

Lower reaches of the vineyard. Racked and back to barrel in August. Will spend several months in tank before bottling in May.

More immediate tension and stony/mineral character than the Charmes. Chewy texture and depth of fruit without extreme fruitiness. Tight limey citrus. Really pulled in on the palate so it is more impressive in length than breadth. Huge pent-up energy. Wait. Embryonically wonderful.

Drink 2024 - 2034

As is usually the case chez Colin, this is the most elegant wine among these 1ers with its cool, pure and airy nose of lemon peel, mineral reduction, apple, pear and soft floral nuances. There is very good concentration to the seductively textured but precise medium-bodied flavours that flash plenty of minerality on the saline and strikingly persistent finish. Note well however that this chiselled effort is very firm and is a wine that is going to require extended patience.

Drink from 2029 onward

The 2017 Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières is strongly marked by its terroir, offering up a crisp bouquet of lemon oil, tart green apple, crushed chalk, iodine and subtle spices. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, taut and tensile with tangy acids and a pronouncedly chalky, mineral quality.

Pierre-Yves Colin described the 2017 vintage as "pure and transparent," with the wines nicely defined by their terroirs. They are, he adds, "more charming than I imagined—less 'cold' in style." Old vines, he says, produced notably more interesting musts than younger plantings, an observation borne out along the Côte. Colin began picking early, on August 28, as usual privileging freshness; though I wonder if a successful experiment with picking his Corton-Charlemagne a little later than had been his habit suggests that the stylistic pendulum may be about to subtly swing at this address?

In any case, he has produced a successful range, true to the strong house style, though showing comparatively little overt reduction when I visited after the harvest. As ever, no distinction is made on the labels between domaine and négociant wines, and Colin is increasingly taking responsibility for farming the parcels from which he purchases fruit.

Colin's vines are located just across the road from his Charmes and a bit closer to the village of Meursault.

Bright, pale yellow-green. Wonderfully delicate aromas of underripe pineapple, white peach, flowers, spices and crushed rock. Denser than Colin's other Meursault premier crus but its uncanny thickness is fully buffered by dusty, palate-staining minerality. This very pure wine shows the penetrating energy of a tungsten filament. Consistent from start to endless finish. There's still an impression of sweetness here as the wine has two grams per litre of residual sugar, but Colin suspects that one of his three 350-litre barrels has not yet completely finished its sugar fermentation.

1 350 litre barrel coming from the lower part of Perrières. The colour remains fresh and lively but the nose suggests weight and sunshine, quite a heavy style. The pears are joined by some peach notes, and a lot of wood effect even though it is housed in a three-year-old barrel. Lower acidity adds to the sense of opulence.

The best of Pierre-Yves Colin Morey's Meursaults comes from the lower part of Perrières, very close to the limit with Puligny-Montrachet. The humidity in the soil was a boon in 2017, helping the vineyard to produce a premier cru that's racy, refined and very pure, with laser-like focus and intensity and a kiss of oak.

Drink 2022 - 2030