Domaine Trapet - Gevrey Past and Future

In every village up and down the Cote D'Or, there are families whose names are seemingly eternal fixtures. In Santenay there are the Bellands and in Meursault the Moreys. There are the D'Angervilles of Volnay and the Leflaives in Puligny. In Nuits Saint Georges there is the Gouges family and the many Gros of Vosne. In Gevrey-Chambertin, Trapet is among the most venerable of addresses.

Jean-Louis Trapet's family go back seven generations in Gevrey, with considerable holdings throughout the village all the way up to the Grand Crus of Latricieres, Chapelle and Chambertin. In the past, the domaine always produced well-regarded wines; classic and long-lived (if a touch rustic at times). The Trapet family also came relatively late to the practice of estate-bottling their wines (I had the opportunity some years back to drink a Trapet Latricieres-Chambertin 1969 bottled under a negociant label). However, if their cellar practices remained somewhat old-school, the Trapets have shown a tendency for viticultural foresight throughout their history.

Louis Trapet was one of handful of Burgundy estates to seize grafting vines as a solution to phylloxera in the late 19th century. Though the practice was forbidden at the time, it saved his vineyards, which went on to be a source of vine material used to re-plant after the region was devastated. Today, Jean-Louis Trapet has shown a similar sense of prescience. He began conversion to biodynamic viticulture in the mid-nineties, when precious few growers were doing so, and today the estate holds Demeter certification. He has also made a series of adjustments in the cellar, reducing the amount of new oak across the board and increasing the percentage of whole clusters in fermentation.

As a result, the wines that Domaine Trapet is producing today are some of the liveliest in Gevrey. We have been fans for some time. There is always a great sense of energy and drinkability, and in the warm 2018 vintage, this is all the more palpable. We have had the chance to open some of these wines ahead of their general arrival, and were struck by the sense of beauty and weightlessness. The fruit is pure and red and despite the high temperatures in Burgundy that summer, the wines are balanced, even delicate. They represent a through-line for the greatness of the region in the last 150 years and what is still to come. We are excited to offer them to you today.

-Sam Ehrlich