2010 Criots Batard Montrachet

Lamy’s 2010 Criots-Batard-Montrachet is pure sensuality in the glass. Soft, floral, very lightly honeyed notes caress the palate in this weightless, gracious white. The Criots is all about understatement and pure class. There is an integrity and centeredness to the fruit that is simply striking. This is yet another fabulous showing from Lamy. Anticipated maturity: 2014+. Lamy is one of the great, not yet widely discovered domaines in all of Burgundy. Readers should do whatever they can to check out these fabulous wines. Olivier Lamy told me he began harvesting on September 12th and had to rush to get all the fruit in by the 23rd as sugars began to mount quickly, while imminent rain was in the forecast. Yields were about 30% lower than normal. Lamy told me he found the vintage hard to read because the weather was quite volatile in the way it changed directions several times during the year. The malos here were quite drawn out. In some cases the sugars took a year to completely ferment, which meant the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations finished around the same time. I tasted this year in early July and found the Lamy cellar to be among the coldest I visited, so it is hardly a surprise to hear that the wines were slow to develop. That is also true of the 2011s, which were mostly through their malos elsewhere, but not at Lamy. From top to bottom, this is a fabulous set of wines that richly deserves a broader audience. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, imported by Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404