Domaine Trapet Chambertin: 1949-2012
BY STEPHEN TANZER |
What with Jean-Louis Trapet being one of Burgundy’s pioneers in natural viticulture, and given the distinctive underlying soil of Chambertin, Trapet’s version of this great Grand Cru can be something of a wild animal. I often find myself using the descriptor “buggy” in my notes on the young wines, not in the sense of unclean but rather of a wine from soil that’s teeming with micro-organisms. All of Trapet’s methods are meant to preserve terroir character, and terroir, after all, is primarily about dirt. Trapet’s soils are alive and so are his wines: they’re about as far from industrially made fruit bombs as Pinot Noir can be, as my vertical tasting at the estate last December made clear.
The History of the Trapet Estate
Jean-Louis Trapet represents the fifth generation to run the family estate, which has owned important vineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin since 1870. (His family actually arrived in Burgundy from southeastern France during the time of the French Revolution, originally settling in Chambolle-Musigny.) But founder Louis Trapet did not exactly get off to a flying start: barely five years after establishing his estate he saw his vineyards essentially wiped out by phylloxera. In fairly short order, Trapet figured out that grafting the vines onto resistant American rootstock was the only solution to the problem, even though this approach was illegal at the time (it was only officially permitted as of 1888). Trapet steadily expanded his estate, purchasing parcels in the premier crus Petit-Chapelle and Clos Prieur in 1877 and 1893, respectively, and adding holdings in the Grand Crus Chambertin and Latricières-Chambertin during the early years of the 20th century.
By the late 1920s, under the tenure of Louis’s son Arthur, the great-grandfather of Jean-Louis, the family had become one of Burgundy’s most important vineyard owners. The Trapets were the largest proprietors of Chambertin and also owned substantial parcels in Chapelle-Chambertin and Latricières-Chambertin. Until the 1950s, most of the family’s fruit was sold to top négociants such as Leroy, Drouhin and Liger-Belair. The first estate bottling of any size was from the generous 1959 vintage, and by the mid-‘70s, during the tenure of Jean Trapet, the father of Jean-Louis, the estate was bottling all of its own production.
After joining his father at the family estate in 1987, Jean-Louis took over vinification duties with the 1990 vintage following his father’s retirement (Jean-Louis also bottled the ‘89s). As Jean Trapet’s brother-in-law Jacques Rossignol, who had married a Trapet, also officially retired in 1990, the family estate, formerly called Domaine Louis Trapet, was then split into two, with half of the vineyards going to Jean-Louis’ cousins Nicolas and David Rossignol. This new entity was named Domaine Rossignol-Trapet while the original Domaine Louis Trapet was renamed Domaine Trapet Père et Fils.
Meanwhile, in 1988 Jean-Louis Trapet had married Andrée Grayer, whose family owned a small vineyard in Béblenheim, in Alsace, and in 2002 Andrée took over her family’s estate, farming according to biodynamic precepts from the beginning. Andrée and Jean-Louis, in recent years assisted by their sons Pierre and Louis, essentially spend their weekends managing their vineyards in Alsace, which have been expanded to 12 hectares over the years, including holdings in the grand crus Schoenenbourg, Schlossberg, Sporen and Sonnenglanz. The wines they make in Alsace are lower in residual sugar than most.
The Domaine Trapet parcels in Chambertin
Trapet’s Vines in Chambertin
Tireless work in the vineyards and a lighter hand in the winery have enabled Jean-Louis Trapet to restore his family’s estate to greatness in the 21st century. This remarkable vertical tasting of the flagship Chambertin encompassed most of the vintages made under Jean-Louis Trapet’s tenure, along with a handful of older gems from the Trapet family’s cellar.
