2019 Domaine Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, Santenay Premier Cru Rouge, Les Gravieres, Red Burgundy, France.
The super young and fresh PYCM Santenay Rouge Les Gravieres Premier Cru starts with a flash of rectuctive funk, but blows off quickly to reveal a gorgeous dark fruited Pinot Noir that, after fully opening, way out performs for the price point, making for a stellar red Burgundy value from a top performing producer, that while best known for his whites, does a fantastic job with his red grapes. The deep and floral palate will have you thinking this was a Cote de Nuits, maybe a Vosne-Romanee or Morey-St.-Denis with a more blue tone to the fruit and violets on the nose, rather than the Cote de Beaune, but shows just how good things are getting in these parts, especially in St. Aubin and Santenay. As mentioned this 2019 vintage is full of blue fruit and black cherry with tangy currant and purple plum showing up on the racy, tension filled, medium bodied palate that fills out with air adding a silken roundness with time in the glass, giving hints of earth, baking spices, orange tea and a kiss of toast wood, along with the partial whole bunch pop or crunch of wild herbs, cinnamon, pomegranate and a cool mineral tone. Most of the higher end Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey wines are way beyond my budget, but I am a huge fan and have been lucky enough to have tasting with him on a few occasions and have found my sweet spot in his lineup with a few of his under the radar bottlings, which not only can I afford, are absolutely awesome bottles, like this one, along with the whites from Rully and Pernand-Vergelesses that offer tremendous value at the money they fetch. In particular I admire and love the Rully Blanc “Le Cailloux”, that s a wine that could easily be mistaken for a Chassagne-Montrachet, which great as I can not aford his Chassagne anymore!
One of Burgundy’s biggest stars, Pierre-Yves Colin is the eldest son of the famed Chassagne winemaker Marc Colin, has gained international stardom in the last decade or so, especially for his Cote de Buane whites from a fabulous set of vines throughout this southern zone, and is heralded for his incredible and mineral intense Chardonnays. After working as the winemaker at his father’s domaine from 1994 to 2005, he established his own domaine, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey after he married into the famous Morey family, from plots of vines he inherited from his family. Since that time, he has rapidly become, as it has been widely reported, a star in the Cote de Beaune and is now considered one of Burgundy’s top producers, along with the new generations at Coche, Jobard and Roulot. Now working alongside his wife Caroline, who has begun bottling mostly reds under her own label, Pierre-Yves own reds have seemingly got even better, which I doubt is a just by chance, as Caroline has proven to be very gifted in her own right. The Premier Cru “Gravieres” is on the Chassagne side of Santenay, as the winery notes, directly adjacent to 1er “Clos de Tavannes”, which is generally considered one of the top sites in the village and are 50 plus year old vines set on the classic clay and limestone soils of this rolling hills terroir. Pierre-Yves used 50% whole cluster and 50% de-stemmed berries will all indigenous yeasts, employing a cool and gentle extraction during a lengthy maceration before the wine was aged in 20% new wood. The Les Gravieres saw about a year in the small 228 French oak barrels and then bottled unfined and unfiltered, and like his whites, Pierre-Yves makes his reds in a fashion that rewards some patience, but still can be enjoyed in their vigorous, but polished youth, as this 2019 vintage clearly shows, this brilliant stuff.
($65 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive