Domaine Gérard Raphet produces wines from the Bourgogne AOC level all the way up to Grand Cru. This particular bottling, the Bourgogne Les Grand Champs is surrounded on three sides by Gevrey-Chambertin appellation vineyards—Pressonnier, La Burie and Croix de Champs. If you were to stand in the Grand Cru of Chambertin Clos de Bèze and look about 1,000 meters downhill, you would see Les Grand Champs. Often, vineyard sites are left out of appellation labeling for slight differences in elevation, slope and/or soil composition. With the Les Grand Champs however, my palate distinguishes no difference—this 2013 bottling is perfumed with textbook Côte de Nuits aromas and is more reminiscent of the wines from the neighboring appellations of Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis, than Gevrey itself. This wine is softer with less hard edges than the typical wines of Gevrey-Chambertin, and is at its prime for drinking over the next few years. 

Though the winery itself is located in the historic village of Morey-Saint-Denis, the vineyards for this wine are located about a ten minute drive north of the estate. Gérard Raphet, who took over the Domaine from his father in 2002, manually works his vines which are located mostly in the Côte de Nuits. He farms his vineyards with an approach known as “lutte raisonnée,” which literally translates to ‘the reasoned struggle.’ This method of farming implies using only organic products in the vineyards, unless under extreme circumstances for 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 barrels, roughly 15% new oak, for between twelve to eighteen months depending on the wine.