Joseph Colin Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge 2021

Joseph Colin's Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge is a small but compelling reminder that this overwhelmingly white wine village has a serious Pinot Noir tradition of its own. Joseph is the son of Marc Colin and younger brother of Pierre-Yves Colin — having started working with his father full-time at a young age, he knows the rocks and vines in this white Burgundy mecca like few others, tending each parcel like his own personal garden. The wine is drawn from two parcels in Chassagne-Montrachet — the lieux-dits Les Pierres and Le Poirier du Clos — with vines over 30 years old, destemmed, and fermented and aged in older 228-litre barrels, unfined and unfiltered. Joseph applies the same hands-off, indigenous-yeast philosophy to his reds as he does to his celebrated whites, with an electricity and verve that is so often sought and so rarely found. 

Brick red in colour, with gentle, soft cherry and red fruits and a hint of spiced oak — forward-drinking in style, a pure and easy Pinot. One taster who tried it young described it as attractively fresh and floral, a real Burgundian Pinot, though also rather lean and green on the palate — a reminder that Chassagne rouge, made in tiny volumes from a village whose soils and reputation are built around Chardonnay, rewards patience and benefits from a few years to soften and fill out.