Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Frionnes

When Olivier Lamy systematically retired the domaine's standard 228 L barriques in favour of 300–600 L demi-muids, he was solving a specific problem: premature oxidation and oak dominance that obscured the chiselled limestone character Saint-Aubin's shallow soils produce. Les Frionnes sits northeast of the village on a southeast-facing slope, its 20–40 cm of clay-limestone over hard limestone bedrock — at roughly 230–350 m elevation — delivering the cool, tense raw material that makes this strategy legible in the glass.

Vines planted in 1935, 1960, and 1985 give three generations of root depth into that bedrock. Hand-harvested Chardonnay is pneumatically pressed, lightly settled overnight, then fermented with indigenous yeasts over approximately 90 days at reduced cellar temperatures — a deliberate prolongation that builds aromatic complexity before malolactic fermentation completes in barrel. The wine then ages 24 months on lees in mostly used demi-muids (0–15% new oak), followed by a further 6 months in tank before bottling under DIAM cork with minimal sulphur.

What distinguishes Les Frionnes within the range is the multi-generational vine mosaic: the 1935 plantings predate the domaine itself by nearly four decades, anchoring a structural depth that younger-vine Saint-Aubin cannot replicate. The cool, frost-pressured 2021 vintage — lower yields, bright acidity, precise minerality — is the most classically proportioned expression of this climat in recent memory; drink from 2025 through 2033.