Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
It's no secret that Olivier Lamy made brilliant wines in this vintage, and the 2013 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Murgers des Dents de Chien, drunk from a three-liter bottle, was every bit as good as I expected it to be. Offering up aromas of sweet citrus and orchard fruit mingled with wet stones, freshly baked bread, beeswax and dried white flowers, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and concentrated, with terrific density and chalky structuring dry extract. This is a tiny cuvée chez Lamy, but it's worth a special effort seeking out.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A classic source of exceptional Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, the Côte de Beaune makes up the southern half of the Côte d’Or. Its principal wine-producing villages are Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
The area is named for its own important town of Beaune, which is essentially the center of the Burgundy wine business and where many negociants center their work. Hospices de Beaune, the annual wine auction, is based here as well.