The 2016 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru la Garenne felt very primal on the nose with grapefruit and chalk aromas, rather surly and aloof at the moment. The palate is nicely balanced with a peachy core of fruit, simple and maybe missing the complexity of recent vintages. There is a pleasing salinity on the finish but I prefer the two last vintages by comparison.

The 2015 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru la Garrenne has a boisterous and intense bouquet, spicier than some of its peers, though maintaining fine control, notes of grilled almond and smoke developing all the time in the glass. The 25% new oak is nicely integrated here. The palate is very well balanced with crisp acidity, much more reserved than the nose suggests, though very well balanced with superb salinity on the finish. This is very fine.

The 2014 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru la Garenne continues on in bottle from where it left off in barrel. It has retained that enticing, wet limestone and yellow flower-scented nose, perhaps with a touch of sea spray that becomes more and more evident as it opens in bottle. The palate is beautifully balanced, tensile and brimming with energy. Again, there is a soup?on of "the sea" towards the finish, a succinctly made, damn delicious Puligny-Montrachet from a domaine in top flight. This is superb. Tasted December 2016.

The 2013 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne is reserved on the nose: stony with wild moorland scents in the background that are quite alluring. The palate is tense on the entry, linear and focused with moderate weight, leading to a composed spice-tinged finish. Conservative at the moment, this will be intriguing to taste with two or three years in bottle. That spicy aftertaste does linger in the mouth for a beguilingly long time.

The 2012 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne comes from vines planted on its red clay soils in 1964. It offers scents of apple peel, freshly sliced pear and limestone on the nose that is well defined, but needs a little more vigor. The palate is fresh and vibrant on the entry with crisp acidity, just that the second half seems a little subdued and does not build on the promise set by the nose. This domaine was one of my regular ports of call when visiting Burgundy and that does not change now. It was a pleasure to meet Damien Colin again. He runs the winery in the village of Gamay (what came first, village or grape?) with his brother Joseph who works mainly in the vineyard and Caroline more on the “admin” side. Their elder brother, Pierre-Yves can be found over in Chassagne having set up on his own after the 2005 vintage. I have always liked these wines for their straightforwardness, their direct approach. There is no messing about here: just simple winemaking tenets applied throughout their diverse portfolio at the heart of which lie several choice premier cru vineyards in Saint Aubin. In recent vintages there has been a concerted effort to replicate the wines of their father with slightly earlier picking to capture acidity as well as minimal batonnage and I think they do that well. These wines might not offer the fireworks that Pierre-Yves manages to conjure, but there is something “true” about them that I always like. Damien repeated the oft-heard tales of woe that beset vignerons during the growing season, which severely impacted his grand crus. The harvesters trooped into the vineyard on 19 September. “I never harvested such ripe grapes at those acidity levels,” remarked Damian, with most wines coming in at around 12.5%. Unfortunately, yields across the board were 50% down and both their Batard-Montrachet and Montrachet were reduced down to a half-barrel each. The sensitive nature of the vinification meant that I did not taste them. The application of new oak is prudent, this year nearly all the premier crus furnished with 15% new wood. Importer: no known importer in the United States, though available through most UK merchants.