James Suckling (96-97)

This is tight with finesse and focus. Minerally and salty with an ultra-fine palate and polished tannins. It goes on and on and on. Strength and finesse at the same time. 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc.

James Suckling (96-97)

This is tight with finesse and focus. Minerally and salty with an ultra-fine palate and polished tannins. It goes on and on and on. Strength and finesse at the same time. 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc.

James Suckling (96-97)

This is tight with finesse and focus. Minerally and salty with an ultra-fine palate and polished tannins. It goes on and on and on. Strength and finesse at the same time. 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc.

The Wine Cellar Insider (95-97)

Deep, and dark in color, and equally dark and deep in its fruit, the nose pops with perfectly ripe dark red and black fruits, licorice, smoke, cherry blossoms, crushed rocks and stones. The wine has depth, sensuality, luscious textures and layers of ripe,opulent fruits. The finish lingers with layers of black and red fruits with dark chocolate that feel as good as they taste. This could be the finest vintage of Tour Sant Christophe ever produced, and that is really saying something. The wine is made from blending 80% Merlot with 20% Cabernet Franc. You can age for 20-25 years. Or if you like,you can also enjoy this on the young side.

James Suckling (92-93)

This is already nicely salty and chalky with crushed stones. Medium-to full-bodied with medium, firm tannins and a medium, juicy finish.

Jeb Dunnuck (96)

Spice-laden red and black fruits, leafy tobacco, savory flowers, and new leather notes all shine in the 2022 Château Tour Saint Christophe, another brilliant wine from this team. I love its complexity, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with fine tannins, a layered, elegant mouthfeel, beautifully integrated oak, and a great finish. Based on 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc brought up in 25% new French oak, give bottles 3-5 years if you can and enjoy over the following 15+.

James Suckling (95-96)

The quality of fruit and salty undertones from the limestone soil are really delicious and exciting. Medium to full body and very fine, velvety tannins that spread across the palate. Bright and crunchy at the end. 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc.

Wine Advocate (88)

Reminiscent of a mini-Grand Puy Lacoste with its cassis fruit, attractive aromatics, lush, sweet, medium-bodied flavors, and inky/ruby/purple color, the 2005 Tour St.-Bonnet sells for a fraction of the price of the Grand-Puy-Lacoste. But beggars can’t be that choosy, right? Drink it over the next 5-7 years.

Vinous (91)

Good full red. Roasted, liqueur-like nose offers almost pruney ripeness along with a note of menthol and the dried-fruit suggestions of a hot, sunny vintage. Large-scaled and powerful, with its dense, thick roasted fruit, menthol and mocha flavors given shape by adequate acidity. Finishes with strong, slightly drying tannins and a suggestion of orange zest. More impressive than classy or classic, this wine lacks the definition of most of the subsequent vintages at my tasting. Trapet noted that the growing season featured an early bud break and flowering, with substantial millerandage, followed by a very early veraison around July 25, but the drought slowed maturity and the harvest did not take place until September 23. This was the first year the estate carried out a green harvest, he added. (12.75% alcohol)

Vinous (91)

Very full, dark red, which Trapet says was due to the long growing season, the small clusters and the thick skins--and possibly the quantity of bouillie bordelaise--a fungicide made from water, copper sulfate and lime--Trapet applied to protect his vines against an outbreak of oidium. Deeply pitched aromas of medicinal dark fruits, black licorice and truffley underbrush. Quite broad and densely packed but a bit musclebound, lacking the class, subtlety and sweetness of the outstanding '99. (I found this wine much more silky and complex at the outset.) A rather extreme and slightly dry-edged style, finishing with dusty tannins and some herbal impingements. Notes of licorice, spices and flowers give lift to the middle palate but I suspect this wine will turn even drier with more time in bottle. Early on, I read it as energetically extracted, but I suspect that it's simply the product of its extreme growing season. According to Trapet, April was cold and May was hot, leading to an early flowering that was difficult and drawn out in some parcels. Favorable sunny weather after July 9 led to quick ripening in spite of the oidium issues and the veraison took place around August 10 in very hot weather. There was more rain after that, and a very cool period in late August, but the small, thick-skinned grapes resisted the moisture and the Chambertin was picked on September 26 under sunny conditions. (13.15% alcohol; 3.58 pH; 3.8 g/l acidity; 34 h/h; this was Trapet's first year working his vines totally organically)

Vinous (92)

Medium red. At once mature and vibrant on the nose, offering rich scents of plum, tobacco, spices, mocha and underbrush. A juicy, spicy wine with modest flesh and texture but intriguing vinosity. Aeration brought fresher red fruits and even more energy and thrust. A savory, classically dry, middle-of-the-road style, displaying a captivating juicy coolness and better integration of acidity and tannins than the '04. A beauty in the context of its vintage. Trapet told me that this wine's malolactic fermentation did not finish until the summer of 2002. (13.3% alcohol; 3.55 pH; 3.6 g/l acidity; 39.5 h/h)

Vinous (92)

Moderately saturated medium red with a faint brick aspect. Musky aromas of red raspberry and mocha began a bit earthy and low-toned but gained in freshness with aeration. Silky and rather generous in the context of its vintage, conveying a strong spice character to its flavors of cherry, red berries and earth. The wine's fruit and tannins reveal a slight dry edge but this very savory Chambertin also boasts a subtle, sexy sweetness. The tannins turn a bit dusty with air, and I wonder if they will ever be fully integrated. (13.2% alcohol; 3.45 pH, 3.6 g/l acidity; 38 h/h)

Vinous - Stephen Tanzer (97)

Good medium red. Knockout soil-inflected nose offers raspberry, smoke, minerals and game, with a noble suggestion of white pepper; as in so many past vintages, this wine combines the best traits of Trapet's Latricieres and Chapelle. Densely packed and spherical on the palate, but also powerful and quite pure, with no sign of excess weight. Wonderfully savory, palate-staining wine, finishing with silky, refined tannins and terrific lingering perfume. A distinctly saline quality adds complexity to this beauty in the making. Like so many 2009s, this wine should be approachable fairly early-say in three or four years-but should also last well.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (96)

I have not been looking at a lot of 2015s recently, so it is really interesting in how this has opened up substantially on the nose, with already some secondary characteristics in the bouquet, albeit with a more youthful fruit on the palate. Then come the tannins, followed by a slightly more evolved finish with mulberries in the mix.

Burghound (97)

Interestingly this is aromatically quite similar to the nose of the Latricières though there is just a bit more wood in evidence plus a hint of menthol. By contrast there is more size, weight, power and muscle to the big-bodied and equally mineral-driven flavors that also brim with copious amounts of dry extract that coats the palate and buffers the very firm but not hard tannic backbone on the driving, hugely long and youthfully austere finale. This is an exquisitely poised Chambertin that is very much built-to-age and is going to need a minimum of 10 years and once again, is a wine that should last for decades. In a word, brilliant.

The wines of Domaine Trapet are the epitome of Burgundian elegance, purity, and finesse. Vinification techniques depend on the vintage but generally consist of a brief period of cold maceration, followed by fermentation in open top wood fermenters with partial inclusion of stems (30 to 50%). Maceration is long and slow, with delicate extraction via punch-down and then gentle pump-overs in the later stages. Sulphur is added only at bottling, in minute doses.

 

The three magnificent Grand Crus Domaine Trapet owns in Gevrey-Chambertin are in top echelons and again in 2016, Le Chambertin under Jean-Louis’ care, has received outstanding reviews. The Trapet Pere & Fils Chambertin Grand Cru 2016 is awarded a 95-97 pts from Neal Martin (Wine Advocate) and 93-96 pts from Allen Meadows (Burghound).