Gerard Raphet Question - what's Cuvee Unique?

Mark_Y · September 20, 2019, 4:43am

Question on Gerard Raphet - there are regular bottles and there are bottles labelled “cuvee unique”…

what’s the difference??

Glen_Gold · September 20, 2019, 5:23am

This might not be useful, but it’s a tiny bit of Burg knowledge I have, so I’m going to dispense it regardless: for Jean Raphet, the Uniques were imported by North Berkeley Wine and they had a more intense oak treatment. At least that was true of the 1999 Gevrey Lavaux St Jacques. They have the same last name, the same MUST apply here, no?

alan_weinberg · September 20, 2019, 6:07am

Cuvée Unique = More Oak. These aren’t top burgs, IMO, though I have no recent data points.

Mark_Y · September 20, 2019, 6:16am

So the regular (non uniques) bottlings are better?

Gerhard_P · September 20, 2019, 7:22am

There are no “Cuvee Unique”-bottles in Europe, so I have no experience, but I think this practique has been abandoned for more than a decade.
If I remember correctly Gerard told me once that he simply bottled one or two new barrels for his US-importer seperately - without blending it with wine from older barrels.
So the regular bottles are a blend of old and new barrels - the CU are new barrels only.
The basic wine is identical - so I dare not to say one or another is better.

Now there is only one cuvee, except for the Clos Vougeot where is a Vieilles Vignes bottles which is more expensive.

BTW: Gerard Raphet, who solely makes the wine since 2002 (when father Jean retired) but did a lot of the work before, too, is producing outstanding wines for many years, if not topclass then quite close. His 2016s are highly recommended, even the Chambolle Village is excellent … and not that expensive.
Also the simple Bourgogne was very enjoyable, but I didn´t taste the 2016.

John_J · September 20, 2019, 12:58pm

I have noticed some older Arlaud wines carry the “Cuvee Unique” name. So this denotes same juice but different oak treatment of the same wine?

Jozef.P · September 20, 2019, 1:28pm

There are no “Cuvee Unique”-bottles in Europe, so I have no experience, but I think this practique has been abandoned for more than a decade.
If I remember correctly Gerard told me once that he simply bottled one or two new barrels for his US-importer seperately - without blending it with wine from older barrels.
So the regular bottles are a blend of old and new barrels - the CU are new barrels only.
The basic wine is identical - so I dare not to say one or another is better.

Now there is only one cuvee, except for the Clos Vougeot where is a Vieilles Vignes bottles which is more expensive.

BTW: Gerard Raphet, who solely makes the wine since 2002 (when father Jean retired) but did a lot of the work before, too, is producing outstanding wines for many years, if not topclass then quite close. His 2016s are highly recommended, even the Chambolle Village is excellent … and not that expensive.
Also the simple Bourgogne was very enjoyable, but I didn´t taste the 2016.

I was here in August, and can also provide some additional info:

Gerard Raphet still bottles his US wines separately, with the US importer giving instructions as to timing of bottling and selection of barrels. I didn’t ask whether they were mostly new oak barrels. For instance, in August most US market wines were already bottled. When I asked him about it, he said “if they pay, they can instruct me on this”.
He fines and I think also filters his wines (TBC) - this makes them more approachable young in my view.
For my taste, he makes tasty wines (both some 2014 and 2017 village wines from Morey and Chambolle and 2013 Clos Vougeot, mostly to introduce some friends to Burgundy at a low cost), which quite importantly are not at all expensive ex-domaine. What is more, you can buy younger back vintages after tasting at the estate.

Jozef.P · September 20, 2019, 1:28pm

There are no “Cuvee Unique”-bottles in Europe, so I have no experience, but I think this practique has been abandoned for more than a decade.
If I remember correctly Gerard told me once that he simply bottled one or two new barrels for his US-importer seperately - without blending it with wine from older barrels.
So the regular bottles are a blend of old and new barrels - the CU are new barrels only.
The basic wine is identical - so I dare not to say one or another is better.

Now there is only one cuvee, except for the Clos Vougeot where is a Vieilles Vignes bottles which is more expensive.

BTW: Gerard Raphet, who solely makes the wine since 2002 (when father Jean retired) but did a lot of the work before, too, is producing outstanding wines for many years, if not topclass then quite close. His 2016s are highly recommended, even the Chambolle Village is excellent … and not that expensive.
Also the simple Bourgogne was very enjoyable, but I didn´t taste the 2016.

I was here in August, and can also provide some additional info:

Gerard Raphet still bottles his US wines separately, with the US importer giving instructions as to timing of bottling and selection of barrels. I didn’t ask whether they were mostly new oak barrels. For instance, in August most US market wines were already bottled. When I asked him about it, he said “if they pay, they can instruct me on this”.
He fines and I think also filters his wines (TBC) - this makes them more approachable young in my view.
For my taste, he makes tasty wines (bought some 2014 and 2017 village wines from Morey and Chambolle and 2013 Clos Vougeot, mostly to introduce some friends to Burgundy at a low cost), which quite importantly are not at all expensive ex-domaine. What is more, you can buy younger back vintages after tasting at the estate.

adam_caldwell · September 20, 2019, 6:39pm

FWIW I tasted with his nephew in the spring (offsite but in burgundy). I saw no bottles or mention of “cuvee unique”. The 2011 and 2014 Gérard Raphet Clos Vougeot Grand Cru were both impressive.

Pau1_M3nk3s · September 20, 2019, 10:43pm

My understanding of the current cuvée unique program is barrel selection and no filtering. And that’s what is on the website.

I’ve got both the regular bottling and cuvée unique in my cellar. Most the CU is from Jean, and the regular from Gerard, so can’t really discuss the differences in taste.

Patrick_Taylor · September 14, 2021, 1:59am

I googled “cuvee unique” and this thread is the first hit. Well done, Berserkers.

I googled because about thirty-five 1997 Cuvee Unique reds showed up on Winebid this week. (1997 is the year I got married.)

Producers include:

Frederic Magnie
Jean Raphet
Domaine Arlaud
Domaine Carre-Courbin
Domaine Marius Delarche
Vincent Dureuil-Janthial
Jean-Luc Dubois
Remy Boursot

I wonder if any of them are still drinkable.