Bright ruby red, quite a bit of viscosity. Nose is fruity, complex, red cherries, cranberries, some oak, cocoa, pine sap, menthol, licorice/pepper, forest floor, orange peel. Palate is fresh, medium+ bodied, medium+ acidity. Nice balance, bright red fruits, cranberries, ripe strawberries, some darker almost blueberry notes, tar, minerals and salinity. Finishes medium+ with somewhat grippy tannins.
And here’s the flame bait/fighting words. Very nice wine, but when you can easily get 1st growth Bordeaux for less money in infinite quantities… I just don’t know…
A magnum drunk by young Steve McLaughlin a few weeks ago seemed to generate more excitement because of what it was, rather than how well it showed. I was not there, but the consensus seemed to be that it was way too young.
A few other thoughts. Mikko is correct. Going price is around $600. But it would be hard to find a top first growth in the price range from a good vintage, at least one that is ready to drink, for that.
That being said, the top ones, that are not ready, are far better values. The extraordinary Mouton 2016 comes to mind. But if you look beyond first growths, there is plenty of good stuff which I would prefer to drink to an adolescent Trapet, but that is my love for Bordeaux showing. VCC obviously, Montrose and Pichon Lalande all available with far more cellar age than the Trapet. And as a bonus, but you could get multiple bottles for the same price.
I like Trapet, it is one of the larger holdings in my cellar, in fact the 2016 is my single largest cache of Burgundy. But they need twenty years minimum, so I think the comparison is difficult. If you have a mature Trapet versus most first growths, well I am not sure. Unless we are talking about a mature Mouton 2016….
Actually just 13 days ago, Mark. I was privileged to be there and try (hadn’t known when I typed up the notes that Steve brought it)
2015 Trapet Chambertin
Much thanks to whoever brought this in mag. Alluring bing cherry with cinnamon lilt and mocha at the back. A long, long way to go yet, but game and earth and red berry alre all there. The promise of Trapet’s velvet feel is there to see. All the things I look for in Chambertin are present. 92+ and #5 tonight.
Rumour is that the latest vintages, which have been overseen increasingly by the sons of Jean-Louis, are a step up. I was at a dinner recently where William Kelley said that the 2020 Trapet Chambertin was better than Rousseau - in fact it was the best 2020 Chambertin full stop. He also said that the improvement in quality chez Trapet has been flying largely under the radar as the Trapets are not very good at (or interested in) self marketing…
Personally, I have always found the Trapet style quite exciting - it is very authentic to the terroir and has “soul”, but has perhaps been let down by a lack of intensity. The wines just feel like they don’t follow through as much as they could. I suspect this is now being corrected and is likely to become increasingly recognised…
Agree about the 9 year old comment. I have had 1999 and 2001 Chambertins (not from Trapet but from Rossignol-Trapet) that, while enjoyable, are not really mature yet.
Full disclosure, I’m a Trapet fan…I favor youthful wines and like me some fruit. 15’-16’? Bring it on
The mag of 15 Trapet we tried with our Canadian cousins a couple weeks ago was tight but good.
I think slower aging in a mag had a lot to do with the tightness because I tried the 15’ twice in 750cc format this Spring and loved it, adolescent though it was…
2015 Domaine Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (2/4/2024)
Opens with ripe red cherry fruit, followed by quenching, woody dryness. Reductive flint notes, mellowing med tannic grip and med acid. Seems concentrated yet balanced. 13.5% Alc.
A glass of delicious pleasure today, with all the elements to evolve into mature complexity. I’ve been lucky to sample the 15’, 16’ and 18’ this week. All were excellent, with similar profiles of red fruit, earth, iron and plenty of stuffing to improve over time. But the 15’ was the most open and pleasurable at the moment. (95 points)
In April I blinded the 15’ Trapet Chambertin against the 15’ Rossignol Chambertin. Both were good, with the Rossi more open and approachable, but the Dom. Trapet was the better wine in my opinion. It had more bright acidity and grip to balance the fruit for the long haul.
2015 Domaine Rossignol Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (4/19/2024)
Nose of baby sh*t and berries. Ripe dark fruit, with some low-med tannic backbone and low-ish acid. This surprised me for how open and approachable it was, based on other reviews.
An easy glass of pleasure that stood out on a table of delicious wine (13 LLM Corton Renardes, 17 Faiveley Chambolle Orveaux, 12 Chezeaux Vougeot…). But it went up against its serious and structured neighbor, 15’ Dom. Trapet Chambertin, my WOTN (94 points)
2018 Domaine Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (1/31/2024)
Rich, dense, dry. Red and black fruit meets briar/garrigue. Has that "blood and iron" thing I sometimes find in Gevrey. Med tannin, med acid. 13.5% Alc.
Wow. Just a baby, but it seems like all the parts are there. This tastes like a preview of greatness in the making. (94 points)
2016 Domaine Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (2/1/2024)
Ripe red cherry fruit, tart balanced by a touch of bitter, some woody sting (oak I assume), med+ tannic grip, med + acid, quenching, concentrated and dry. 13.5% Alc.
Delicious but young, this seems built for the long haul-I expect it to age well into greater complexity and depth. (94 points)
2009 Domaine Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (8/8/2023)
TART. Tar and red cherries. Stiff tannic grip. If there is any of that ripe sun-kissed 2009 fruit here, it’s locked away behind a wall of acid and tannin. Bodes well for the long haul but today? Fuggedaboudit. Try in 2033 or so. 13.5% Alc
1979 Domaine Trapet Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (10/15/2018)
[Atlanta Tastevin Burgs and Burgers Paulee’]: Pale brown-red, tasted old, raisins, with that bit of rubber I taste (personally) in older reds. Remarkably, still had a bit of fruit there. Hard to evaluate this mellowed grand dame in the cacophony of a Paulee’ but memorably good. (92 points)
I tasted the 2016 side by side with the Rousseau Chambertin. So close, so very close. Rousseau was sublime, and the Trapet crawling at the edges. The $2000 price differential made no sense, and I ended up buying a few cases of Trapet. It is a deeper, firmer wine than the 2015, with greater elongation and length. But less pretty.
Since then I have gone through three bottles, and it is getting better each time. Twenty years from now, if I am still around, I think I will have a magnificent wine.
I think it has been a gradual process since probably 2017 onwards, and has involved some quite radical changes to their pruning system and canopy management, as a way to cope with global warming.
My sense is that the fruits (literally) of these efforts have really started to show since 2018 onwards…
I agree and I think there are a number of producers in Gevrey that make better wine than Rousseau now, including Trapet. Duroche has certainly been making better Clos de Beze for some time, though the market has noticed the increase in quality there. To be fair to Rousseau, I think this has been the case of producers catching up rather than Rousseau significantly falling off.
As a slightly fun aside, I was in Gevrey recently and asked about the farming in one plot because I thought it was particularly good; I had assumed it was another producer only to be told by my friend that it was actually Trapet.
Much more of a novice, but Trapet definitely stood out across the 2022 EP tastings I attended (also Rossignol-Trapet’s GC VV was a surprising and consistent top-performer.)
I was privileged to be there and try (hadn’t known when I typed up the notes that Steve brought it)
