This singular wine comes from 0.7 hectares planted at a density of 30,000 vines per hectare more than 20 years ago. The vines are located at the top of the vineyard, where the soil is incredibly rocky and the climate coolest. They are spaced around 30cm apart in one-metre rows. At such a density, Lamy typically gets a maximum of three tiny clusters per vine (sometimes one, sometimes none!), and the entire plot only yields enough juice to fill the contents of a single barrel or two. Lamy’s trials with higher densities have produced completely different wines, and he has subsequently rolled out this program in several other parcels, including Les Tremblots (Puligny; 22,000 vines/ha) and within his soupçon of vines in Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet (24,000 vines/ha). As you would imagine, distributor allocations of Lamy’s Haute Densité cuvées rarely top more than a case or two, and the wines are seldom tasted in the cellar.
How does this differ from the other cuvée from the same site? More intensity, more salinity, more mineral concentration—even though that may be hard to imagine—and somehow less overt fleshiness. It’s like the vines are sucking even more from their rocky soils, and the result is something unique.