2023 St Aubin Blanc Clos des Meix

From the climat below Derrière Chez Edouard, where the limestone is hard and the soils quite red, the 2023 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Clos du Meix is one of the chalkier, more chiseled wines in the range, offering up reductive aromas of pear, apple and wheat toast, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and racy palate. Olivier Lamy and his vines appear to have handled the 2022 growing season admirably, despite the hydric deficit and warm conditions. This is an estate whose wines have generally demanded a bit of patience out of the gates, yet the 2022s are especially charming, exhibiting a youthful expressiveness and sense effortless this year that makes them especially appealing. Bottling under Diam 30, with concomitantly somewhat lower levels of free sulfites, surely has something to do with it. But it's probably also simply the result of over two decades' work coming together in a seamless synthesis. Whether it's cutting-edge viticulture, including plantings at over 20,000 vines per hectare and unhedged canopies; extended maturation on the lees, which now amounts to 24 months in total, 23 of those in largely neutral wood; obsessive attention to closures and bottling practices; or a host of other small details that, cumulatively, make the difference between the best and the rest, Lamy has spared nothing to get to where he is today. While his ultra-rare Haute Densité bottlings are now almost impossible to source, readers will still find it easy to secure his more modest cuvées. Everything here comes warmly recommended.