The eldest son of Marc Colin, Pierre-Yves worked at the family domaine from 1994 to 2005. Meanwhile, with his wife Caroline (née Morey) he had established a négociant business in 2001 under the name Colin-Morey. After the 2005 harvest he left the family domaine, taking with him his six-hectare share of the vineyards, which now form part of the Colin- Morey label. This does not differentiate between wines from its own vineyards and those from purchased grapes.

Pierre-Yves’s techniques have evolved since leaving the family domaine, in part in response to the problem of premature oxidation. There is no more battonage and the cellar is no longer heated to encourage the malolactic fermentation. The wines are kept in barrel longer (the barrels are from François Frères and Chassin, with about one-third new wood, in the form of 350-litre casks), the St-Aubins being bottled before the next harvest but the remainder being kept on lees for up to 18 months. The bottles are sealed with wax on top of corks which have not been treated with peroxide.

In these warmer times Pierre-Yves is prepared to harvest early, though within reason: “I want tension but not anorexia.” The trick is to get a decent amount of flesh on the palate after the fresh, indeed austere nose. Though the style of wines remains recognisably PYCM, I have the impression that the gunflint reduction has been dialled back.