Deeper pitched than its Chassagne-Montrachet counterpart, the 2020 Santenay Vieilles Vignes exhibits notions of dark berries, plums, peonies and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, ample and velvety, with a gourmand core of fruit and lively acids, it's a fine effort.

Offering up aromas of red berries, cassis, orange rind and rose petals, the 2018 Santenay Vieilles Vignes is medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated, its powdery tannins concealed by a layered core of fruit. This may well prove to be a sleeper of the vintage.

The 2017 Santenay Vieilles Vignes hails from a very old parcel and is deeper-pitched than Colin's other reds, exhibiting notes of cherries, rich soil tones and peonies, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered palate that's earthy and nicely concentrated.

The 2016 Santenay Vieilles Vignes offers pretty red cherry and raspberry scents on the nose, though it needs to develop more vigor by the time of bottling. It seems rather static. The palate is better with brisk red cherry and strawberry fruit, fresh and tart in the mouth with decent body and weight on the finish. Hopefully the aromatics will meliorate by the time of bottling.

The 2012 Santenay Vieilles Vignes comes from 103-year old vines (which must be some of the oldest in Burgundy) and includes 10% new oak. The nose was showing some sulfur but the palate has decent rustic brambly red fruit and a soft, bell pepper finish. Fine. 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.