Domaine Trapet
The Free Bacchus Story
Chambertin was Napoleon's wine, which is the fact everyone repeats about it, and it tells you nothing at all about what is happening in the vineyard now.
What is happening at Trapet is Biodyvin-certified biodynamic farming across holdings in Gevrey-Chambertin, including the grand cru itself. Jean-Louis and Andrée Trapet converted the domaine in the 1990s, with trials from 1995 and the whole estate from 1997, when few growers in Burgundy had tried it. Even his own family took some persuading.
The village and premier cru bottlings come off the same certified ground as the grand cru.
The wines are perfumed rather than heavy, which is the Gevrey style that gets lost when growers chase extraction. The Chambertin is scarce and priced accordingly; the village and premier cru bottlings carry the same farming without the same queue.
For anyone working out where biodynamics actually sits in Burgundy, this is a useful data point. It's not a fringe practice here. It's being done on grand cru land that was changing hands for up to €14 million a hectare in 2017, by people who can't afford a bad decade.
Why it’s remarkable
Free Bacchus Verification
Biodyvin certified biodynamic
Certified1
- Biodyvin certified biodynamic — Domaine Trapet Bourgogne, adherent 2002 (Gevrey-Chambertin)
If you’re buying
Cheat sheet
Save it to your phone. Everything you need to recognise this producer, and three things worth saying about it, at a glance in a shop or across a table.