A broad-ranging and very pretty if again mildly exotic nose is comprised by notes of wood toast, white and yellow orchard fruit nectarine and mandarin orange. The rich and relatively full-bodied flavors brim with dry extract that imparts a succulent, even seductive, mouth feel that carries over to the firm and lingering finish. While this could be approached young, it would be beneficial to allow it a few years of cellaring first.

Score: 91 Allen Meadow (AM), Bourghound (BH), June 2019

(from two parcels of 50-year-old vines): Bright, light yellow with green highlights. Reticent nose shows a green apple note and a hint of oxidation, as the malolactic fermentation only finished a couple weeks before my visit. Thick, sappy and dry, with a glyceral solidity leavened by almost painful acidity. This deep but youthfully disjointed wine is a shock to the palate today. With its oily texture and notes of resiny wild herbs, this wine conveys a strong place character. Colin describes La Chatenière as "the oldest place for Chardonnay in Saint-Aubin and a great terroir," noting that his parcels face southwest and are protected from wind. The crop level here was 48 hectoliters per hectare in 2017. This wine needs a racking and is evolving slowly.

Score: 87-90 Stephen Tanzer (ST), Vinous Media (VM), September 2018

Aromas of white flowers, orange blossom, citrus oil and green apple introduce the 2017 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru La Chatenière, a medium-bodied, stony but giving wine with succulent acids, a crisp core of fruit and good length on the finish. It´s a successful wine from a parcel of old vines that Colin owns.

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.

Score: 89-91 William Kelley (WK), The Wine Advocate (WA), February 2019