Got this from Last Bottle for like $185 I think. My plan was to open it young to see if anymore was warranted. Answer - no. It has Ca like ripeness, so in that sense I could tell it was Grand Cru. You don’t get this level of sweet fruit for $45 in Burgundy. But for $45 in CA or Oregon you do. Rasberry, faint earthy hint, medium body, wonderful pillowy palate feel. Elegant but I will search in CA or Oregon for this type of taste for likely less than half the price. I feel when you get to Rousseau, DRC, Leroy at 5plus x’s the tariff you get something that goes way beyond CA…
Decanted for an hour, drank pre hot tub, in hot tub and post hot tub… Actually really was open for business…
On night two more of the Burgundian character is peeking through. It has now separated itself from CA or Oregon with it’s structure and the earthy dark fruit component coming through. I may have been hard on this wine. On the nose it has this slight tarry, earthy thing going on that I am mystified by. I am happy that for once I have spent enough money on Burgundy to get this level of fruit. I received a PM from a board member here that says that Raphet likes his 2019 better. So if the next vintage is better I will buy this again.
Sounds as you never had a really mature Raphet (Grand Cru)?
Nothing CA- or Oregon-like among these … 2002 is wonderful now. They do develope into something special …
I don´t say that Gerard Raphet is a superstar in Burgundy, but his wines are excellent to outstanding for 20 years, and my feeling is: still getting better …
Your experience reminds me a bit of the 2018 MM Ech. Very ripe and new world quality. I think a lot of 2018 GCs are going to need many years to integrate and develop secondary and tertiary characteristics. Doesn’t make them bad wines. However I was less than impressed with the 2011 Raphet CC.
From what i have tried Raphet’s wines are never super dense or ripe, but very elegant and perfumed and somewhat unadorned. There’s a quiet reasurredness about the wines, but don’t buy them if you want richness in your Burgs, but perhaps the solar quality of 18s has contributed here!
I don’t have much experience with Raphet, but had the 2005 of this a few years ago. It was quite good, if not overly memorable. Had lots and lots of life ahead of it.
The 2018s from Raphet are pretty rich! Even heady, in some cases. Most of the GCs are labelled at 14.5%. There are some nice wines in the range but stylistically speaking it’s definitely something of an outlier for them.
Last summer I had the the '18 village Chambolle-Musigny Bussieres. Didn’t take a note, but have to second William. It was a big wine, 14.5% abv, that didn’t strike me so much as rich but instead had a lot of structure. Raphet tends to be lighter but this one was definitely not in that style.
Edit: After getting over the surprise I rather enjoyed it!
Yes, some at the domaine when purchasing. More concentrated and sweeter than usual, especially the Chambolle-M., but that will balance out with some years. Haven´t opened any bottles yet, I´ve got enough older ones, going back to Jean R.´s bottlings.
Ah, at last! A bit of a note on the 2002 (which i bought from david schildknecht years ago when he was with vintners select). Name on label is Jean Raphet, of course, not Gerard.
Michael…if you could find Faiveley CdCortons 2007…buy it. It was released in Quebec Canada at CA $132. The wine never closed-down…and it is always delicious.