Visited in Gevrey with Jean Trapet, 04 April, 2018.
Domaine Trapet
53 Route de Beaune
21220 Gevrey-Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 34 30 40
www.domaine-trapet.fr
Link to Latricières-Chambertin profile
Jean Trapet explains :
“Latricières-Chambertin was the first grand cru bought, in 1904, by my great-grandfather Louis Trapet and my grandfather of Pierre-Arthur Trapet. It was such a large plot that it was shared between Louis Trapet and Domaine Camus who were friends. They shared 3 hectares, 1.5 ha each. The previous owners were the Savot family – personalities of Chenôve – Mr Savot’s family had owned the vines since just after the revolution. Before that there was competition between abbeys of Cluny and Citeaux for ownership – the old châteaux of Gevrey-Chambertin was Cluniac, unlike the Clos de Vougeot who was with Citeaux.
“The Combe de Grisard makes this a cooler place than our Chapelle-Chambertin – which is a wine of the sun – Latricières is more sombre. Chapelle-Chambertin sits under the Clos de Bèze and shares many of the same characteristics of exuberance, whereas Chambertin has more depth and needs time to show it – Latricières too. If you taste the wines young, the majority of people prefer Chapelle as it becomes communicative very young, but given time it’s the complexity of the Latricières that comes through. There’s a lot of red fruit in Chapelle, but Latricières has a superior structure and brings a little truffle with time.
“I shared the 1.5 hectares with my sister so today we have 0.75 hectares, those vines of my sister are today with Domaine Rossignol-Trapet. There are three bands of soil – some marne blanche, then comes a band of rock, followed by lots of stones – you need a bit of each for the best complexity, and most of the owners have rows that run from the bottom to the top, so see the effect of all three bands of terroir in their wine – you see, we growers often talk of parts of grand crus not the grand cru!
“I planted the oldest part about 50 years ago – the vines replanted in 3 phases – there are none of the vines remaining from 1904. For us, Latricières is not always the last vineyard to be harvested but we, of-course, never harvest first here – usually that’s Chapelle which usually has the first flowers too.”
The wines with a few comparative Chapelle-Chambertins…
Plenty of age to this colour. The nose is deep and dank with wet leaves, old oak, meat and undergrowth – this is a wine that needs plenty of air to clean-up its act. In the mouth good freshness and a nice panorama of flavour – it’s really rather wide. Open and transparent, gaining in poise and clarity. A wine of balanced freshness and a little complexity, the small rasp of tannin in the finish emphasising that, overall, it’s still a youthful thing. It holds a fine finish. Today I’d decant to get at that aromatic transparency and interest at the earliest possible moment. But this is a wine with two faces – given at least two hours from opening, the texture and flavour becomes finer, the nose losing all that forward leafiness. Starting academically interesting, finishing absolutely gorgeously. Bravo!
2007
A wide nose, redcurrant and ripe rhubarb fruit, not so deep aroma. Mouth-filling, complex, lots of energy, a little bitter in the finish, but with multiple layers of finishing flavour – a proper grand cru finish. Initially it’s not particularly attractive up to the great finish, but like the 1999, this keeps getting better with air.
2007 Chapelle-Chambertin
To compare. Here is a deeper, riper nose, with a little leather. Big in the mouth again, lots of energy, layers of flavour once again, a little ripple of tannin. A similar overall standard to the last wine, but with different delivery. It’s a super finish again, but not as good the last, but the initial and mid-palate flavours are better presented.
2009
Ooh – a beautiful, vibrantly aromatic nose – yes! Big, fresh, full of energy, complexity and a little salinity – the palate is similar to the previous two, and again with a fine clarity to the finish. This wine is showing more purity, great energy and has none of the initial austerity of the first two – less overt, but super persistent in the finish – excellent!
2016 Chapelle-Chambertin
An impressively deep, deep nose. Mouth-filling volume that’s matched by impressive depth of flavour. A round and beautifully textured wine – excellent.
2016
This is showing a similar depth of aroma to the Chapelle, here augmented with extra high tones. The palate has more width, a little more open structure too. Very long. I directly have the impression that there is more here to wait for versus the Chapelle. Such a super wine.