We all know that great wine is about conviviality and sharing. It’s not about scoring points. But if you could uncork a bottle that was both profoundly delicious and capable of making you look like the most savvy, well-traveled wine savant around…I mean, why not, right? This old-vine Gevrey-Chambertin from Gérard Raphet is that bottle, and here’s why: Of all the “insider” Burgundies we feature on this site, this one is probably the geekiest, most under-valued single-vineyard wine of them all.
The “Champs Chenys” vineyard directly abuts two Grand Cru vineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin—Mazoyères-Chambertin and Charmes-Chambertin—and yet it didn’t even manage a Premier Cru classification when the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO), the government agency that oversees French wine classifications, mapped out Burgundy back in the 1930s. Evidently there are subtle differences in soil composition between Champs-Chenys and its two Grand Cru neighbors, but c’mon: how can this site not be ranked higher than lieu-dit (named parcel)? The INAO is often petitioned by growers in Burgundy looking for “promotions” of various vineyards, and I’d have to think Champs-Chenys is the subject of one—but in the meantime, I’m content to take advantage of the scandalous difference in price between today’s stunning 2018 and the luxury bottlings made right next door. We’re forever talking about the “game of inches” that so dramatically affects Burgundy pricing, and Raphet’s Champs-Chenys is perhaps the best example I can think of: You want to drink exceedingly well and look like a genius while doing it? This is your wine!
It also comes to us from one of our go-to producers of opulent, painstakingly hand-crafted red Burgundy, Domaine Gérard Raphet. 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 adjacent to 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 products in the vineyards, unless under extreme circumstances in difficult vintages. Gérard and his team use traditional cultivation methods and harvest only by hand.
Our team visited the Raphet domaine and tasted through their incredibly impressive lineup of wines, and I was struck by the family’s devotion to craft over self-promotion. Gérard is especially soft-spoken, despite having one of the more enviable collections of prime vineyard holdings in the Côte de Nuits, most of them populated with vieilles vignes (old vines). Their reds are at once soulful and luxurious, deeply concentrated and velvety but not laden with excessive “makeup.” It is small-scale artisanship at its best—like buying a suit from a bespoke tailor instead of a department store.
The Champs-Chenys vineyard, as detailed above, is immediately downslope from Grand Cru Charmes-Chambertin (in which Raphet also owns vines). To ratchet up the intrigue level a little further, Raphet’s parcel in Champs Chenys is within a little “notch” that reaches into Charmes, meaning it is surrounded on three sides by Grand Cru vines.
So, as you’ve likely gathered by now, we’re talking about a special wine here. Sourced from vines ranging in age from 35 to 110 (!) years, then aged 18 months in used French oak barriques, this is knee-weakening, soul-stirring red Burgundy—velvety and profound and, yes, easily mistakable for Grand Cru-level wine. In the glass, it’s a deep ruby red with hints of pink at the rim, with brambly, woodsy aromas: wild strawberry, raspberry, black cherry, pomegranate, cinnamon, black tea, crushed rocks, and underbrush. It is medium-plus in body and lusciously ripe, but the mineral underpinning and firm tannic structure lends it the darker-toned, more ‘masculine’ edge typical of Gevrey wines. There’s a crushed-velvet quality to the texture that makes the wine (like a lot of Raphet wines) tantalizing to drink now after 30-60 minutes in a decanter, but there’s no question the structure is there for extended aging—I think this wine is going to shed some of its “baby fat” and become a very lithe, complex, aromatically explosive wine that should be singing arias on its 10th birthday. Pair it with a meal worthy of Grand Cru wine, even though you’re not spending Grand Cru money—it’s worth it! Enjoy!
