As many of you are aware, the wines of Domaine Gérard Raphet have made a big impression on us over the last few years. This is an ultra-traditional winery, both in its family-scale dimensions and the structured, earth-driven style of its wines. When I taste these wines I can’t help but think of the difference between a brand-name suit and a custom-tailored one.
No doubt the Armani will be beautiful, well-crafted, and fit you well, but the custom is made just for you. I feel like the small amount of wine Gérard Raphet and family craft from the Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru is made just for me (and a few other like-minded souls). As rarefied a bottling as it is, it doesn’t feel like a “luxury good,” with all the mass appeal that term implies. It’s styled for people who want their Burgundy to clearly state that it came from the soil—a Pinot Noir that has perfume, fruit, and a balance of acid, tannin, and minerality. Are you one of those like-minded souls? If so, I’d jump all over this reasonably priced 2014 from Raphet. It is, in a word, special.
There’s no denying the appeal of a property like Raphet’s, the ultimate in ‘farmstead’ winemaking: passed down through multiple generations and boasting stands of 100-year-old Pinot Noir vines, this is still a tiny operation, with a simple cellar underneath the family home. Gérard Raphet, who took over the domaine from his father in 2005, manually works the vines with the help of his wife, Sylviane, and their daughter, Virginie. Theirs is the old-school lutte raisonnée, or ‘reasoned fight,’ approach—a methodology that calls for only organic treatments in the vineyards, unless under extreme circumstances in difficult vintages. With this in mind, Gérard and his team use traditional cultivation methods and harvest only by hand. The grapes undergo strict sorting before fermentation with natural yeasts, and then the wines are put in French oak barrels (roughly 15% new) for between 12 to 18 months. Based in Morey-Saint-Denis, the Raphet domaine extends throughout the Côte de Nuits, with about 12 hectares in vineyards spread across Morey, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Chambolle-Musigny.
Just downslope from the “Le Chambertin” Grand Cru in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, “Charmes” is said to have a slight northern tilt to its easterly aspect, resulting in wines that are marginally less sun-exposed (and therefore less intense) than some of its Grand Cru neighbors. Gevrey-Chambertin in general produces some of the most masculine versions of Red Burgundy, and while this wine has a firm structure, there’s also a level of lift and refinement that reflect the conventional wisdom regarding this site. Raphet farms four separate parcels in the vineyard, and created an exceptionally balanced, perfumed bottling from the site in 2014.
In the glass it is a reflective garnet-red, but don’t let the light-seeming color fool you: The aromatics are concentrated and complex, mixing black cherry, wild raspberry, orange peel, pomegranate, fresh roses, wildflowers and damp leaves. It has a tightly coiled power that will take some time—in the decanter, or better yet, the cellar—to resolve, and there’s clearly enough concentration for extended aging (I think it will peak somewhere between its 10th and 15th birthday). It’s both exceedingly ‘pretty’ and sneakily muscular, which is typical of the Grand Cru Charmes Chambertin. If enjoying a bottle now, decant it a good hour before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems. It’s a style of Burgundy that brings all the well-worn, ‘rustic’ Burgundy recipes to mind: Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, and the like. No doubt this can handle richer fare, but let’s go in a slightly less traditional direction with the attached recipe for a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin. Ultimately, this wine will pair with a wide variety of foods, and it will deliver for many years to come. Enjoy!
