Domaine Gerard Raphet Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2018
WHOA!!
Collectors! Burgundy aficionados, brown limestone and “mother rock” cognoscenti, RN74 drivers and trophy hunters, or the Grand Cru curious….dig up every “shut the front door!!” type cliche you can...we are BUSTIN’!!! Raphet Charmes-Chambertin, best price ever seen (unless you were buying these 20 years ago), 97 POINTS Jeb Dunnuck and his #34 Wine of the Year...but beyond that...just….RAPHET Charmes! It’s unreal!
Before we further rhapsodize, gush, etc….um, did you get a few? Because, just the nature of Burgundy in general, but 97-point Grand Crus especially….we have VERY little. Like, none.
Where to start? Besides being a true Burgundy-o-phile’s dream, and extremely rare to find for us normal humans, Raphet’s wines are handmade from field to bottle, with a style that hasn’t changed in four generations. Vines for this wine are 40-50 years old. Harvest is done by hand, aged for some 18 months in mostly older French oak barrels. Wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. Read more about the Charmes-Chambertin vineyard HERE.
We got to drink one precious bottle. There was arm-wrestling involved. Dark, powerful, intense and concentrated and has that uniquely mouth-filling yet ethereal weight that makes Burgundy so incredibly special. “Expansive” is an understatement - but holy moly this could go on for 3 more paragraphs!! It’s probably long gone! While it lasts!! Absolutely amazing! Good luck!
This wine is a charmer from start to finish. Its aromas and flavors of pure cranberries and savory spices are alluring and persistent.
Raphet wines are a Burgundy lover’s Burgundy. While the wine’s color in
the glass is a delicate ruby, aromas and flavors surprise with their forceful
intensity. This contrast often catches the uninitiated off guard, yet it
is part of the seduction of these limited and highly sought-after wines.
Raphet Burgundy is handmade from field to bottle, with a rhythm and
method that hasn’t changed in more than four generations. Pinot Noir
vines at the estate are on average very old, with many surpassing 100
years. North Berkeley Imports selects individual barrels of wine to import
exclusively under our own label, “Cuvée Unique.” These wines, unlike the
estate’s regular wines, are bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Technical Details
Country: FranceRegion: Burgundy
Appellation: Gevrey-Chambertin
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vineyard: Estate vines are located in four separate parcels in this larger grand cru vineyard, two-thirds of which hail from Charmes proper; the rest from Mazoyères-Chambertin. Soils are brown limestone, some gravel, but shallow; the “mother rock” of pure limestone is close to the surface.
Winemaker: Gérard Raphet
Aging/Cooperage: : Hand-harvested. Fermented on indigenous yeasts in tank. Aged in older French oak barrels for 18 months (approximately 15% new oak). Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Alcohol: 14.5
About The Producer
Gerard Raphet took over the domaine from his father in 2002 and since then he has tightened up the yields and and increased the percentage of new oak. Gerard is a 4th generation Raphet who utilises traditonal methods of vinification with everything in the vineyard undertaken manually.
The domaine has 12 hectares of vineyards around the village of Morey-St-Denis. There are 14 crus vinified including five grand crus and three premier crus. Gerard strives for healthy soils to produce quality fruit to meet the quality he demands in his wines. He is less concerned with extraction of colour in preference to freshness, elegance and finesse. He ages his wines for 18 months but renews only 15% of oak each year, and hand bottles all the wines without filtration.
The result is wines that are appreciated by those familiar with lighter colour belying the power of the pure, red fruit characters, earthy and spicey flavours of classic Burgundian pinot noir.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair it with a grilled double-thick pork chop with a delicate wine reduction sauce.
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