"Jasper Morris MW 92 Points
A pretty mid lemon colour. The bouquet suggests that the 2011 is reaching its plateau with an attractive phenolic reduction, very open. The tension on the palate is starting to dial down and there is not the same length as the very best. Still, attractive and quite long. Go back to this after tasting the Haute Densité version and it comes across as that much fresher. Tasted February 2022"
Olivier Lamy’s wines have a crystalline quality that really makes them stand apart. A better expression of the 2011 vintage would be hard to find. The impeccable winemaking and perfect balance of ripe acidity means these wines age very well. The domaine’s particularity is the high density at which they plant, including two plots of 30,000 vines per hectare, three times more than normal.
Jasper Morris, MW - published March 2022
In the Presence of Genius – Domaine Hubert Lamy: St-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard, A dual vertical of the regular and Haute Densité bottlings, 2006-2019.
We need to be sparing with the word genius. Certainly, if genius is defined by the ‘infinite capacity for taking pains’, Olivier Lamy qualifies without a shadow of doubt. He is widely admired and applauded by vigneron colleagues and indeed it is hard to book a tasting with him except at the end of the day when he has finished his work in the vines. He never stops thinking about what to do next to improve his wines, whether in the vineyard or the cellar.
Since 2006 Olivier has made a regular and a Haute Densité bottling. He could perhaps have done so in 2005 but at that point he had not worked out that the HD bottling needs to be picked earlier, and the grapes got too ripe.
The Tasting
A small group tasted the wines in the early afternoon of 21st February. The bottles had been opened in advance, at around 9.00am. We tasted the wines in pairs, from oldest to youngest, though Olivier was at pains to ask us to look at each wine individually rather than to try to force comparisons between the two versions – something which inevitably did happen but was not the focus of the occasion.
Guess what? Our hopes were met by this series of astonishing wines. In St-Aubin nobody does it better (though there is stiff competition from the growers based in the hamlet of Gamay, such as the Colin family and Domaine Jean-Claude Bachelet & Fils). The ten ***** ratings break down equally between the two versions, with both wines rating this accolade in three vintages (2014-17-18), the regular bottling alone in 2007 and 2012, and the Haute Densité in 2008 and 2009.
The regular bottling delivers the quintessence of St-Aubin – and this from vines which are not especially old and from a location which is not, on paper, among the most sought after 1ers crus. The Haute Densité is usually rather richer, without losing balance because the acidity and the dry extract are equally a little more intense. These wines come into the category of Great White Burgundy, over and above being exceptional expressions of St-Aubin. Please be in no rush to drink them. And when you do, raise your hats to this magical and essentially modest vigneron, Olivier Lamy.
