We had the privilege of tasting today’s wine with its maker, at his estate, just weeks ago. Gérard Raphet was the first Burgundian we visited during our lengthy trip through France with North Berkeley Imports, and while the man himself was shy and soft-spoken, his 2016s offered the warmest and most resounding of welcomes.
As we would confirm repeatedly over several days in Burgundy, the 2016 vintage—while dramatically smaller than ’15 in many areas (thanks to a damaging Spring frost)—has much of the same depth and exuberance as 2015. Whites and reds alike wowed us at every turn, starting with the top-to-bottom brilliance of the Raphet lineup. Today’s wine is the first of several Raphet 2016s we’ll be offering on SommSelect, and established subscribers know how much more there is than meets the eye here: Though it carries a “Vieilles Vignes” (“old vines”) designation, the label doesn’t do proper justice to a wine whose vineyard sources are not just old but really old (60+ years on average) and include some serious Premier Cru real estate to boot (fruit from the Morey Premier Cru “Clos des Ormes” is utilized). It is a Premier Cru in all but name, really, and in 2016 there’s a level of opulence and accessibility that makes it tough to stay away from now. Then again, why stay away? It’s priced accessibly, too—low enough that you can enjoy some both now and later, which I can’t recommend highly enough!
The Raphet domaine, as I’ve noted before, represents the ultimate in farmstead-scale 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 products in the vineyards, unless under in circumstances in difficult vintages. 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. Today’s wine is primarily based on older-vine fruit from “Clos des Ormes” (a Premier Cru just downslope from the iconic “Clos de la Roche” Grand Cru). But it doesn’t say “Premier Cru” on the bottle, which explains why it isn’t twice as expensive.
As we learned firsthand during several days of visits in Burgundy, 2016 ranks right up there with 2015 in terms of quality, but not in quantity—Spring frosts had a damaging effect on crop sizes throughout the region, although some areas were hit harder than others. All of the Raphet 2016s we tasted—a veritable murderer’s row of Morey-Saint-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin vineyard royalty—were opulent, exceptionally pure, highly perfumed expressions of Côte de Nuits Pinot Noir, and quite accessible at this youthful stage in their lives. As with the 2015 version of this wine, which we offered last year, the 2016 “Vieilles Vignes” is not an inky wine but a medium-to-light ruby in the glass moving to magenta at the rim. But, as with the 2015, looks can be deceiving: this is a deeply concentrated, lushly textured wine with the underlying structure for long aging. Aromas of red and black cherry, pomegranate, strawberry, and a touch of cranberry share time at the fore with scents of underbrush, dried mushroom, rose petals, and a touch of exotic spice. Medium to medium-plus in body and beautifully polished, there’s also a deeply mineral component that lends some muscularity to an otherwise lifted and perfumed wine. If you are enjoying a bottle now, decant it about an hour before serving at 60-65 degrees in large Burgundy stems; if, after that experience, you manage to keep your hands off the remaining bottles, be assured that it will really start singing around 2020 and continue to evolve gracefully for years thereafter. Pair it with the attached stuffed pork tenderloin preparation and marvel at how it continues to improve over several hours (if not days—there’s no doubt it will perform on day two!). It is truly one of the most over-achieving red Burgundies we’ll offer all year, so don’t miss it!
