The wines of Gérard Raphet 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 attraction and seduction of these limited and highly sought-after wines.
Raphet inspires the most emotion when trying to describe what exactly makes these wines so captivating. Raphet Burgundy surprises and delights; it opens the possibilities of what great, old-vine Burgundy can do, and just how intimate and special that experience can be.
No Raphet ever went to enology school; winemaking as family tradition has been passed from father to son, and now daughter, through four generations. There’s no pontificating, no philosophy—just the rhythm of a day that starts before sunrise, the years of history absorbed in each gnarled, 100-year-old vine, and the handful of barrels stashed in a dark cellar underneath the family home.
Gérard took over the domaine in 2005; today his daughter Marion also helps out in the cellar and fields. Gérard is modest, almost shy, preferring the majesty of his old-vine Pinot Noir to “do the talking.” And talk it does, from the exuberant aromas of young wine to the suave silk of cellared bottles, some 10 to 20 to even 30 years on.
91 Points Allen Meadows
An exceptionally fresh and pretty red pinot fruit nose also reflects nuances of stone, plum and earth hints. There is really lovely detail and purity to the delicious, intense and well-balanced middle weight flavors that are very Lavaut in character, all wrapped in a mouth coating and mineral-inflected finish. As is typically the case with the Raphet wines, this is not particularly powerful or concentrated but the focus is impressive in the context of the vintage and for those who enjoy refined and almost delicate burgundies, this would certainly qualify.