After reading and hearing mixed reviews on the 2010 Hubert Lamy Saint Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly, I decided to test all 12 bottles from the case with Coravin. I purchased this case last year from a UK wine merchant, it has always been stored in a temperature and humidity controlled warehouse since arrival in 2011 (10-12 degrees, c. 80% humidity). I took delivery from the warehouse yesterday (i.e. provenance in theory is great).
Test date: 29th July 2020
A 15ml sample was taken out from each bottle with Coravin and all tested straight out from the case at c. 15 degrees (59 Fahrenheit).
Results
- 3 out of 12 bottles were fresh
- 6 out of 12 bottles were advanced
- 3 bottles were premox
Shockingly 9 out of 12 bottles (75%) were either advanced / premox, this is one of the worst premox statistics I have encountered. Some people on Cellartracker also seem to have experienced premox on this particular cuvee in 2010 as well, from a few recent reviews noting “golden colour” and “advanced”. Hence this appear to be a widespread issue, and not only from my case.
Please note that this post is not intended to put people off from buying this particular producer / vintage, as I personally highly rate wines from Domaine Hubert Lamy, especially their recent vintages. Very unfortunately their 2010 was particularly affected by premox, however I firmly believe that any wine faults (whether premox or TCA or others) should be spoken about to i) allow winemakers reflect on the issue and potentially “fix” the issue, ii) raise general awareness on storage conditions (proper temperature and humidity control), and iii) prevent disappointment from potential buyers.
After a brief discussion with Olivier Lamy, he said he used corks from 5 different cork producers for the En Remilly in 2010, and they all have variable oxygenation level (which might explain the significant bottle variation in regards to the level of maturity).
Domaine Hubert Lamy started bottling a small amount of his cuvee in DIAM in 2007 (Bourgogne Blanc), then gradually moved onto Premier Cru. In 2016, 95% of the white wines were bottled under DIAM and since 2017, 100% of white wines were bottled in DIAM.
P.S. the 9 advanced / premoxed bottles were “given” to Noble Rot Restaurant for their cooking. At least these premox wines weren’t completely gone into waste!
