There are few white wine producers in Burgundy—or anywhere—more revered than Hubert Lamy. The family has tended vines since 1640, but it’s under Olivier Lamy’s stewardship that the domaine has become one of the most thrilling names in the region. Working largely in Saint-Aubin—a once-overlooked appellation now prized for its altitude and cooling winds—Olivier has proven that greatness doesn’t always reside where tradition says it should.

Saint-Aubin’s cooler slopes, funneled by a dramatic combe, offer the kind of natural air-conditioning that today’s warmer vintages desperately need. In Olivier’s hands, this terroir becomes electric. He pushes boundaries in the vineyard, planting at dizzying densities—30,000 vines per hectare—forcing the roots to dive deep and struggle in competition. The payoff is immense: chardonnays that are pure tension and grace, etched with stony precision and luminous energy.

Fermented and aged in large-format barrels with minimal new oak, the wines are never dressed in wood. They speak fluently in the language of their site—steep, rocky, cool. Farming is meticulous and organic. And the wines? They’ve become some of the most coveted in Burgundy, snapped up by those who understand that elegance born of hardship is the most beautiful kind of reward.

La Princée is sourced from five village-level parcels along Saint-Aubin’s western slope, where chardonnay vines planted between 1985 and 2000 grow in thin, limestone-rich soils shaped by altitude and cooling air currents. The fruit is hand harvested, gently pressed, and fermented with ambient yeasts, then aged on the lees in large-format, neutral oak, with sulfur added only during aging. In the generous 2023 vintage, attentive vineyard work kept the wine lively and precise. Crisp apple and pear set the tone, joined by apple blossom and a cool, rain-on-stone minerality, making this vintage of La Princée especially vivid and built for the next glass.