Gerad Raphet's 2022 Burgndies
We love these wines for their pure fruit, their persistence on the palate and their fidelity to the terroir that the Raphet family has worked for generations—they are classic, beautiful wines that because of their balance and purity will age very well, too. Ridiculously limited. Indeed of all our Burgundy partners, 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. KERMIT LYNCH
Nothing gives me more pleasure than foraging for winemakers unknown to myself, or those that I have never visited. There are innumerable “under-the-radar” growers in Burgundy, and I use that term knowing that some oenophile’s radars are better than others. Gérard Raphet took off the running of the family Domaine back in 2002 and nowadays is assisted by his daughter. The Raphets farm around 12 hectares of vines mainly around Morey-Saint-Denis: an impressive portfolio. I absolutely loved the two latest vintages of Clos de Vougeot, so much so that I was compelled to mention Raphet here and make a vow to visit the domaine on my next visit to Burgundy. NEAL MARTIN, Vinous.com
ON THE 2022 VINTAGE
The 2022 vintage is proof that Burgundy hasn’t lost its capacity to surprise. How could the hottest, driest vintage since 1947 deliver wines so succulent, suave and charming? And why do they have so little in common with the Côte d’Or’s 2020, 2019 and 2018 vintages? The devil, as we shall see, is in the details, but what is clear is that 2022 is another very strong Burgundy vintage, offering excellence in both colors and in a wide variety of styles, foregrounding the fascinating nuances of site that render this region so interesting. WILLIAM KELLEY, Wine Advocate
I cannot remember a Burgundy vintage that elicited so much joy from barrel, and I’ve undertaken this exercise for over 20 years. NEAL MARTIN, Vinous.com
2022 is an amazingly consistent vintage. I tasted almost no poor wines. Everything was good to very good, with occasional touches of greatness. JASPER MORRIS, Inside Burgundy
Make no mistake, there is plenty of reason to be very excited about the incoming 2022 Burgundies. Read any pundits thoughts after tasting these wines and you can feel the genuine surprise and excitement about how wonderful the wines are. Quality appears very good to excellent across the board with the warm weather delivering lovely ripe, concentrated fruit and the timely rains giving the wines the requisite freshness and tension to buffer. It's clear that while these are wines that typify modern Burgundy, where succulent fruit takes the stage early on making them hard to resist, yet the structure sits under the hood in the best wines allowing them to age marvelously.
This style seems to play right into the hands at Raphet, a Domaine whose wines are typified by bright and vivid fruit, intoxicating perfumes and just a sense of ethereal beauty. Pair that with the subtle changes seen since Gerard's daughter Marion has been handed the winemaking and viticulture keys, more density and a refinement of tannins to name a few, and you have the perfect storm for what is one of our most loved Burgundy imports. Make no mistake this is an estate whose star continues to rise, and while style here remains a constant, everything is now getting dialled in and turned up to a level where the wines not only grab your attention, but command it.
The key to Raphet's success has always been built on their vineyard holdings. Their Bourgogne Rouge for example is drawn from lieux-dits surrounded by Grand Cru vineyards, their Gevrey Chambertin is from a plot sliced out of Charmes-Chambertin, with vines creeping up to 100 years old. Their Morey St Denis combines fruit from two 1er cru sites, Clos des Ormes and Les Millandes, and yet is labelled, and priced, at the village level. Clos Vougeot is a vineyard where location can be the difference between transcendent and mediocre, and the Raphet's have a brilliant old vine parcel and make one of the finest wines you will see from this site. With fruit from these stellar holdings at her disposal Marion, who pairs her lifelong experience at Gerard's side with an Oenology degree, is showing she is the final piece of the puzzle for this already much adored estate.
