Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Maltroie 2019

La Maltroie is one of the wines that helped cement Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey's reputation as one of the most gifted white-Burgundy winemakers of his generation. Jancis Robinson once remarked of PYCM that "it's not often that a winemaker's genius can be detected in a bottle of basic Bourgogne" — and if that's true of the entry-level wine, it's even more evident here, in a Premier Cru that Bettane+Desseauve rate among the domaine's most consistently racy and elegant. Pierre-Yves, eldest son of the celebrated Marc Colin, left the family estate in the mid-2000s to build his own domaine with wife Caroline Morey, and La Maltroie is farmed with the same fastidious, organic approach applied across the range: whole-cluster pressed with minimal débourbage to preserve nourishing lees, fermented on native yeasts, and aged around twelve to twenty months in larger-format oak with no batonnage — an unhurried, hands-off process Pierre-Yves sums up simply: "I do things the old-fashioned way, which always takes more time."

The result is white Burgundy at a level few outside Grand Cru territory can match: Meyer lemon, Granny Smith apple, and stone fruit meet beeswax, honeysuckle, and a gentle touch of vanilla and caramel, layered over river stone and jasmine. The palate is lush yet precisely controlled — round, creamy acidity, a powdery, chalky minerality, and real drive through a long, persistent finish that critics have repeatedly scored in the mid-90s. It's a wine with genuine presence, built to flex against rich food or hold its own on its own. Pour it with roast white meats, a properly stinky washed-rind cheese, or a butter-based sauce — this is one of Chassagne-Montrachet's most compelling Premier Crus, from a producer who has quietly become one of the most sought-after names in all of Burgundy.