2022 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Ancegnières"(1.5L)

Note: note that Colin does not use the traditional spelling of "Encégnières" for this wine; from 80+ year old vines. Here the expressive nose displays a phenolic note on the ripe aromas of mostly white orchard fruit, petrol and a hint of rosemary oil. There is fine richness and density to the bigger-bodied and more powerful flavors that exhibit fine length on the very dry but not really austere finale. This offers excellent quality for its level and is a wine that should also repay up to a decade of keeping. Also recommended.*Burghound top Value!*

The 2022 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Ancegnières is suaver and more immediately textural than its more structured Vieilles Vignes counterpart, revealing aromas of pear, honeycomb, beeswax, dried flowers and oatmeal, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and seamless palate. The 2022 vintage is another success for Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, in style somewhat reminiscent, at this early stage, of the estate's 2020s. 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 wrote last year, since moving to his new, much colder cellars in Chassagne-Montrachet, he finds his wines retain significantly more free sulfur dioxide for any given addition, and he now feels he added more than was necessary—given these altered conditions—to his 2015s, 2016s and 2017s. So, some subtle adjustments have now been made in this regard, and readers can expect the wines to be a little less buttoned up out of the gates than has been the case in those three vintages. 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,