2016 Domaine Marc Colin & Fils Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Frionnes

Marc Colin comes from a wine family in Burgundy with a strong reputation. Together with his two sons, he manages a domain of 20 hectares located in the village of Saint-Aubin in the Côte de Beaune. He exclusively owns top appellations: Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Premier Cru vineyards in Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin and Pernand-Vergelesses. This is very exceptional. Although this domaine has traditionally been known for its quality, Colin sees an opportunity to continually improve it. That is why he is receiving increasingly favorable reviews in the international press. Colin's wines excel in purity and combine power with elegance. Perhaps a bit shy in their youth, but with enormous storage potential.

Traditionally minded, he vinifies his wines with a remarkable intuition for nature. Although he is open to innovation, he sticks to a traditional style and, for example, strives for optimal freshness in his white wines and avoids the wood-dominated Chardonnay type. He is the most awarded winegrower from Gamay St-Aubin and owner of Restaurant Le Chassagne, which has 1 Michelin star. Today, Caroline, Joseph and Damien, three of their children, run the Marc Colin estate which extends over 19 hectares and includes 26 appellations in the villages of SAINT-AUBIN, CHASSAGNE-MONTRACHET, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET and SANTENAY. Joseph manages part of the vineyard in sustainable cultivation and the other part in organic cultivation experiments. By regularly cultivating the soil, we can avoid chemical weeding and thus obtain grapes of impeccable quality.

We were able to purchase this fantastic red Marc Colin Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Frionnes directly from Marc Colin's cellar. The Colin's have the habit of retaining a portion of all their wines per vintage and then releasing this in very measured quantities in the known minimum quantities. We were able to purchase this 2016 Premier Cru in December 2023 and it will be provided with a label and capsule in early 2024 and we will then collect it from the Domain.

This Pinot Noir is 2016 and this was an excellent year and a 1er Cru at this price makes everyone happy. Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating and sometimes irritating wine grape in the world. However, if it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known. This thin-skinned grape, which grows in small, tight bunches, performs well on well-drained, deep, limestone-based subsoils of the Premier Cru vineyard Les Frionnes where, in addition to Hubert Lamy, Marc Colin also has a small plot. Les Frionnes is a Premier Cru vineyard in the Saint-Aubin appellation in the Côte de Beaune region of Burgundy. Both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are grown on site.

Saint-Aubin's Premier Cru vineyards are divided into two sections. One is located on an approximately 1 km long stretch of southeast-facing hill between Gamay and Saint-Aubin, the other is on either side of a valley southeast of Gamay, towards the border with the municipalities of Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. The three hectare (7.4 acre) Les Frionnes falls into the first of these. The vineyard is located just outside the village of Saint-Aubin, a few meters from the buildings on the northeastern road (the "rue des Frionnes") to Gamay.