2021 Domaine Pierre-Yves Coiln-Morey, Chassagne-Montrachet “Abbaye de Morgeot” Cuvée Clement et Emma, Premier Cru White Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, France.
The extremely rare Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Abbaye de Morgeot Cuvée Clement et Emma, which I had not had before, was a stunning and very much in style for Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey with exceptional mineral driven character and purity, while still offering luxurious richness and exuberance in the glass. This 2021 is more classically steely and crisp, than what I hear the more concentrated 2020 version was, and I was thrilled with the less is more feel to this vintage, while enjoying the layers of lemony toned citrus, apple, pear, quince, melon and tart peach fruits, along with the hint of yeasty bread dough, wet stones, white blossoms, clove and toast wood notes. Good acids and incredible tension make this a brilliant and pedigreed medium to full bodied wine, I can imagine this lovely Chassagne gets creamier with age, but the thill as it is now is very compelling. The Colin family has some fabulous plots in some of the Côte de Beaune’s best vineyards, from Chassagne to Batard (Montrachet), and Pierre-Yves added some high quality vineyards to his own portfolio, expanding into the Côte de Nuits and to the Côte Chalonnaise, with great success, but is still most famous for his Saint-Aubin and Chassagne-Montrachet bottlings, like this one. The Abbaye de Morgeot is part of two main parcels on chalky limestone and clay with a gravelly topsoil on a southeast facing hillside that surrounds the Abbaye de Morgeot itself, that was once home to an order of Cistercian monks just south of the village of Chassagne. The coveted 21 acres of vines, with both Chard and Pinot here, the “Morgeot” lies above, and “La Chapelle” below, which (both parts) can be labeled Abbaye de Morgeot, overlook the abbey buildings.
Domaine Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey is a modern icon of Burgundy with Pierre-Yves and his wife Caroline Morey being one of the region’s power couples, like Jean-Marc Roulot and Alix de Montille, and now with the Colin-Morey sons Mathis and Clément joining the family domaine, the wines continue to be some of the most coveted in the world. This Domaine based in Chassagne, is the holy grail for white Burgundy, especially for the wine industry itself, rather than only the top 1% collectors, with many bottlings being affordable for mere mortals. That said, some of the Premier Cru wines here have truly been discovered and the rarity has sent prices past my wallet’s ability and I doubt I will be drinking PYCM much longer. Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, as mentioned here in prior reviews, has made a brilliant career in Chardonnay, having worked along side his dad and brothers as the winemaker at his father’s domaine from 1994 to 2005, then stepped out on his own founding his own domaine in 2006. Pierre-Yves, as noted here, follows a strict protocol and method, using all sustainable and hand tended vineyards, with mostly organic practices in the vineyards, while in the cellar he ferments and ages his wines in barrel, with early picks being the norm, using indigenous yeasts and somewhat notably, he prefers larger format 350L French oak demi-muids instead of the classic 228L barriques, with his Lieu-Dit and Premier Crus seeing close to 30% new if not more, adding just the right amount of toasty accents. While the 2021s are less weighted and more subtle, I have been impressed for the quality across the range in these Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey offerings, especially the almost Grand Cru quality like Chassagne-Montrachets, and look forward to trying the 2022s, which I hear blend the opulence and density of the 2020s and the vibrancy of the 2021s to even better effect, not that I am complaining about either or.
($249-300 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive