Fifteen years ago, we contacted a Burgundian producer who at the time was just a regular superstar: Olivier Lamy of Domaine Hubert Lamy. Oliver was a fit, energetic young man who enjoyed the rare combination of being both universally liked by his peers in Burgundy, and already thought of as being one of the top winemakers of St. Aubin.

More than anywhere else, this was a domaine that leading producers tipped us off we should visit.

Since then, Olivier’s star has continued to brighten. Scores for his wines were already in the low nineties in 2007 and climbed to the mid-nineties by 2015-2016. Today William Kelley rates Olivier as “one of contemporary Burgundy’s greatest vignerons.”

When we first visited Domaine Hubert Lamy in St Aubin in 2007, not many people fancied the appellation. St. Aubin is tucked into a gap in the hills above Puligny and Chassagne-Montrachet, and this makes it a little cooler. Its wines could offer value in a ripe vintage, but they were thought of as being less sophisticated and age worthy. They might be drinkable, but they weren’t yet collectable.

Yet even then we could see St. Aubin’s potential. If the Burgundy region continued to warm and harvests in August became more often the norm than the exception, cooler areas would begin to ripen fruit more reliably. In hot vintages, the wines from St. Aubin might even outperform their more illustrious neighbours, retaining a vigour and acidity lacking in those from more exposed areas.

Following our visit we advised our clients to buy into Lamy.

The supernova wines are those referred to by Lamy as ‘Haute Densité’. Standard vine planting in Europe is typically at 10,000 vines per hectare, which results in spacing of 1 metre between vines and between rows. In Lamy’s high density plantings, his vines are planted at 30,000 per hectare.

It’s thought that this reduced space forces his vines into greater competition, causing them to send their roots deeper into the ground in search of nutrients and water, gathering up greater mineral variety, while protecting them against drought. Yet more densely planted vines don’t give significantly greater yields, and if you triple their number, you triple the amount of work needed in the vineyard. A vigneron planting at ‘haute densité’ really has to care about quality above anything else.

Olivier Lamy is that kind of vigneron, and William Kelley’s June 2022 review of Lamy’s high density 2019 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru “Derrière chez Edouard” is astronomical:

“Whether the 2017 or the 2019 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard Haute Densité is the finer wine will be a fascinating question to debate over the decades to come, but the latter continues to perform brilliantly, mingling aromas of green pineapple, pear and citrus oil with notions of freshly baked bread, toasted nuts and youthful reduction in a compelling bouquet. Full-bodied, satiny and concentrated, it’s rich and layered, with a racy spine of acidity, chalky structure and a long, intensely mineral finish. This is a stunning white Burgundy that takes Saint-Aubin to places that no one would have imagined possible a mere decade ago.

“It’s a monumental achievement from Olivier Lamy, one of contemporary Burgundy’s greatest vignerons. “97 Points”

Like all supernovas, Lamy’s wines are rare, and have become amongst the world’s most sought-after phenomena. Make sure your telescope is trained in his direction.