Variety: Chardonnay
From/Terroir: Southeast-facing slope, mid to lower part (middle part is steeper, with more limestone in soil). Derriere Chez Edouard, Saint Aubin, Burgundy, France
Critical Acclaim:
92-94 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"Unwinding in the glass with notes of pear, white flowers, beeswax, orange oil and warm bread, the 2019 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard is medium to full-bodied, layered and searingly intense, with a chiseled, chalky profile and a long, saline finish. This is a serious Saint-Aubin, manifestly built for the long haul. (WK)" (1/2021)
92-94 points Vinous
"The 2019 Saint-Aubin Derrière Chez Edouard 1er Cru has a complex bouquet with green apples and a light, almost algae-like note, which probably sounds more pejorative than it is. The palate is well balanced with very precise mineral-driven citrus fruit that gains weight towards the finish. This fans out wonderfully and it will age for many years. Superb. (NM)" (12/2020)
91-93 points Allen Meadows - Burghound
"Cool, restrained and airy aromas reflect notes of wafting citrus, white flower and spiced pear. The racy middle weight flavors exude a bead of minerality that adds a sense of lift to the gorgeously textured, chiseled and iodine-inflected finale. This is excellent though it's also quite compact at present, so patience strongly suggested. *Burghound Outstanding!* " (6/2021)
Notes: The 2019 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard includes some 30% high-density plantings that Lamy considers too young to contribute to his special Haute Densité bottling and when combined with the concentrated 2019 vintage the results are spectacular.
Offering up aromas of pear crushed mint freshly baked bread vanilla pod and lemon oil it's medium to full-bodied layered and multidimensional with terrific concentration racy acids and a long searingly mineral finish.
This year as a flurry of early December snow fell outside Olivier Lamy opted to show his bottled 2019s rather than his 2020s from barrel- a choice I warmly endorse as wines evolve slowly in these cold cellars where larger vessels predominate and nothing is done to accelerate the maturation process.
As I wrote last year in 2019 yields chez Lamy were reduced by frost averaging around 25 hectoliters per hectare; yet the wines aren't defined by frost as they were for example in 2016 when an abundance of second- and third-generation grapes complicated the choice of harvest date.
In the same report I described the wines as concentrated and textural with prodigious levels of dry extract and that was borne out in bottle: these are remarkable wines built for the ages and it's hard to think of anyone in the Côte d'Or who more fully realized the potential of the vintage in Chardonnay.
As my notes attest these are brilliant wines and it hasn't happened by accident: rather it's the fruit of 30 years' hard work. Olivier Lamy has conclusively smashed the glass ceiling that for so long has imposed upon the wines of Saint-Aubin. All the white wines are bottled under DIAM. - Wine Advocate
