This beautifully expressive Chapelle-Chambertin has an abundance of ripe wild strawberry and pomegranate fruit on the initial attack, with hints of spice and tea. Pierre Trapet explains that Chapelle-Chambertin is the polar opposite of Latricières – a hot place with warm nights in the summer, particularly here at the top of a small slope. The soils are very thin, just 20cm in some places, meaning it ripens quickly and is often the first grand cru picked. The proximity of the limestone gives the wine a high acidity that provides tension in a hot year such as 2023.(CC)

Sitting right on the bedrock, this is typically one of the first sites harvested. An ambitious 80% whole cluster dosing comes into refreshing effect, indeed, with evergreen scents, wintergreen and cool spices. Finely-etched tannins, floating acidity and intense minerality give this seriousness. This will easily benefit from six to seven years of cellar age.

The 2023 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has turned out very nicely, wafting from the glass with aromas of raspberries, blood orange, rose petals, incense and spices. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and fleshy, with a deep core of succulent fruit, chalky tannins and a long, saline finish, it reveals excellent potential. The Trapet family has produced an attractive set 2023s. As readers will remember, there have been a host of changes at this address in recent years: in 2020, fully seven hectares of the domaine's holdings were converted both to échalas and to higher trellising stakes and wires, depending on the steepness of the slope. Since then, changes have been rolled out in other parcels too. Given the extent of Trapet's holdings in prime climats, that means that the walk from Morey-Saint-Denis to Gevrey-Chambertin suddenly looks rather different. In the cuverie, winemaking continues to be classical, with important percentages of whole clusters, followed by élevage in ever diminishing percentages of new oak, with foudres joining barrels in the cellar.(WK)