If you are both a Burgundy fanatic and a longtime SommSelect subscriber, you’ve heard a lot about the “Lavaux St. Jacques” Premier Cru in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin. And you’ve also heard a lot about Domaine Gérard Raphet, whose wines from this legendary vineyard always manage to stand out in a crowded and high-profile field.
Lavaux St. Jacques is the largest Premier Cru site in Gevrey-Chambertin, with more than 30 different owners farming portions of its south-facing slope—including Gevrey titans such as Armand Rousseau, Dugat-Py, and Denis Mortet. As a result, there are quite a few bottles out there with the “Lavaux St. Jacques” designation, but none that I can think of that pack as much punch for the dollar as this one. In my wine-tasting travels, I often find that the personality of a wine is closely tied to that of its maker—but in Raphet’s case, the sheer opulence of his wines doesn’t align with his humble, taciturn personality. This is someone who truly lets the wine do the talking, and his tiny domaine, which he runs with his wife, Sylviane, and their daughter, Virginie, doesn’t have anywhere near the name recognition it deserves. I’ll say this, though: We’ve done our part to spread the good word about Raphet. Regardless of which tier of the Burgundy pyramid they’re working in, they over-achieve, whether it’s their Bourgogne Rouge “Les Grands Champs” (a runaway favorite of the SommSelect faithful) or something more rarefied like today’s Premier Cru. Coming in just under $100 and boasting more luxurious depth than a great many Grand Cru reds costing multiples more, this is as sure a bet as you’ll find across the Premier Cru landscape. It’s a showstopper and, as is so often the case, a limited-availability wine likely to disappear in an instant. Up to six bottles per customer today until it’s gone!
Raphet’s ace in the hole, as I’ve noted before, is his family’s collection of seriously old vines, some of which are nearing the century mark. His parcel in Lavaux St. Jacques boasts 50-year-old plantings, and is situated in some of the most prime real estate within the long slope—right near the border with the neighboring “Clos St. Jacques.” What’s so fascinating about this site is that it sits right at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux, the narrow valley that runs west out of Gevrey-Chambertin, so it has a mostly full-south exposition in comparison to the east-facing band of Grand Crus right across the valley. Cool air funneled down through the combe from the forested hills above helps refresh vines that otherwise take in all-day sun, resulting in wines that are typically deep, concentrated, and very “Gevrey” in character—but still possessed of the kind of firm structure and freshness that makes Burgundy Burgundy.
Working in their small cellar, which is attached to their family home in Morey-Saint-Denis, the Raphets fermented their hand-harvested fruit on ambient yeasts in tank. The finished wine was transferred to 15% new French oak for 18 months, then bottled unfined and unfiltered—and 2018’s edition is as full-throttle an expression of Gevrey-Chambertin as one could ask for. One thing I’ve noticed about Raphet’s upper-tier reds in recent years is that they are often tantalizingly accessible on release, with lots of rich, concentrated fruit, then they knit together and “button up” a bit in preparation for the long haul. I don’t think 20 years of evolution is out of the question for this wine, regardless of how delicious it is at this moment.
In the glass, the 2018 has a ruby-garnet core moving to a pink rim, with aromas of sappy black cherry, blackberry, wild strawberry, pomegranate, baking spices, black tea, licorice, underbrush, and a touch of dark, damp soil. It is full-bodied (on the red Burgundy scale), with its youthful fruit concentration cloaking the powerful tannic structure underneath. What’s amazing is the freshness, which keeps this big wine nimble and invigorating and drives the aromatic finish. Given 45 minutes or so in a decanter, this is an opulent, even decadent, red Burgundy experience to enjoy soon, but as I said, I would not hesitate to lay some down—great things are in store for this multi-dimensional, fathoms-deep red. Serve it at 60 degrees in Burgundy stems with one of the heartier, meatier dishes of the Burgundy genre, like beef
Bourguignon. There’s enough wine here to merit a labor-intensive version like Julia Child’s, so go for it! Enjoy!
