The word “combe” is spelled the same in French and English and is used to describe a steep, narrow valley. If you look at a map of Burgundy—or better yet, if you do what we did recently and go see it in person—combes are a notable feature of the landscape.
Although the Côte d’Or is a long, gently rising slope generally oriented to the east and southeast, nearly every key village in the region has a combe that snakes upward into the higher hills and forests to the west. “Lavaux St. Jacques” is a Premier Cru vineyard positioned at the mouth of the combe that runs west out of Gevrey-Chambertin, and as such enjoys a nearly full south exposition and a microclimate moderated by cool air funneled down through the valley. At 9.53 hectares, this is the largest Premier Cru site in Gevrey, with a constellation of big-name producers farming its slopes; although the soft-spoken Gérard Raphet isn’t always listed among those stars, his 2016 Lavaux St. Jacques does all the talking. Our recent visit with Raphet and his daughter, Virginie, was one of our first glimpses of Burgundy’s 2016 vintage, which is shaping up to be every bit as generous as ’15. Their lineup of reds, which includes several Premier and Grand Cru bottlings, was one home run after another—and still this wine stood out. At this point in the young lives of these wines, Raphet’s Lavaux St. Jacques felt the most complete, with astonishing length and a firm structure; and in a lineup of luscious, concentrated, beautifully polished Pinots, this showed perhaps the most serious cellar potential. We can offer up to six bottles per customer today—some of which you can enjoy now, some later. That’s what I call a win-win!
By all accounts, 2016 had similar warmth and produced wines of similar concentration to the epic ’15s—the problem, in some places, was quantity, as spring frosts reduced crop sizes nearly everywhere. Among all the rich, generous Raphet ’16s we tasted during our visit, the Lavaux St. Jacques had a more “cool climate” personality at this stage, with a firm backbone and lots of perfumed aromatics. In the glass, it’s a bright ruby red with hints of pink at the rim, with brambly, woodsy aromas: wild strawberry, raspberry, black cherry, cinnamon, black tea, crushed rocks, and underbrush. It is medium-plus in body and plenty ripe, but the mineral underpinning and firm tannic structure lends it the darker-toned, more ‘masculine’ edge typical of Gevrey wines. It will open up nicely and offer delicious drinking now after about an hour in a decanter, but I think the real sweet spot lay about 5-7 years down the line. I wouldn’t necessarily peg it as a 20-year wine, but who’s got that kind of time, anyway? Serve it at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems and pair it with one of Burgundy’s most classic dishes, oeufs en meurette (or just make the meurette sauce and spoon it over salmon instead). This is Burgundy at its very best. Cheers!