The young Pierre-Yves Colin quickly becomes one of the most recognized wine producers in Burgundy. He has been making wine at Marc Colin, the family's Domaine, for over 10 years. He studied oenology in Beaune and worked at Chalk Hill as well as wineries in Northern Rhône, Languedoc and Loire before returning to Burgundy. He and his wife Caroline, Jean-Marc Morey's daughter, founded their own company and made 150 cases of wine in total from five appellations in their debut vintage in 2001.
The approach in both the fields and the vineyard is natural and non-interventionist. At Domaine Marc Colin, he eliminated the use of herbicides in most vineyards and switched to plowing, which deepens the root system and improves the wine's taste. He follows the same procedure in his own vineyard. Approx. 60% of the total production now comes from the vineyards of Chassagne and Saint Aubin. They bought a new press in 2006, and Pierre-Yves now harvests most of the purchased fruit with his own team. The production of 1er and Grand Crus is still minimal - only 2 or 3 barrels from each vineyard.
The juice is pressed into barrels before primary fermentation, and then Pierre-Yves lets the wine rest as much as possible. Fermentation is always initiated by natural yeast, and the wines are not pumped, nor are they filtered.
Pierre-Yves also prefers unusual dishes - approx. 80% of them are 50% larger than normal Bourgogne casks. Depending on the vintage, most of the best wines are aged in new oak, but the larger casks minimize the influence of oak and also delay malolactic fermentation. The cellar is also kept very cold to further delay malolactic fermentation - which ideally ends 8-9 months after harvest. Approx. 18 months after the harvest, the wine is bottled. The extended elévage helps to preserve aromatic intensity and purity, as well as giving the wines the right balance for long-term aging.
