Celebrations there must have been, for it is almost a Trapet tradition for each generation to add its 'stone to the edifice', in the form of a parcel of vines. The original Louis Trapet, from distant Chambolle-Musigny, started it all by marrying an orphan from Gevrey and moving there.
Around 1870 , Louis' son Arthur - greatgrandfather of the present head of the house, Jean Trapet - realising that it was possible to rehabilitate phylloxera-infested vineyards by grafting on to resistant rootstocks, began to acquire Village land in Gevrey - Grands Crus Chambertin and Latricieres-Chambertin were added around 1904. He was in fact among the earlier converts to this way of working and his success gave a strong impetus to the Domaine to produce better wine than their competitors.
In common with many Domaines, the Trapets suffered during the 1920s and 1930s from insufficient labour and a weak market and up to the end of the 1940s Louis Trapet (II) sold most of his production in barrel to local negotiants. The early 1950s saw the gradual introduction of Domaine bottling which by 1975 had spread to the entire annual production of some 4,000 cases -about half of which is exported.
Tradition imbues the Trapet spirit. Louis (II), who died in 1991, added his wisdom to Trapet deliberations which helped preserve the sense of oral tradition which so clearly matters to the family. After 25 years at the helm, Jean Trapet - a short, kindly man, with an air of honest and old-fashioned courtesy, now in his late fifties - is slowly handing over the reins, and probably some of the 'accumulated', to his own son, Jean-Louis, who joined the firm in 1987 and has been in sole charge of vinification since 1990.
One suspects that the traditional methods have been entrenched here longer than might have been entirely desirable. The wines have been generally upper-middle in quality with the occasional remarkably fine bottles and some occasional lapses. Criticism has focused on high yields and the emphasis of finesse at the expense of real depth.
Jean-Louis is an earnest, self-confident and deliberate man with his father's courteous disposition. Exposure to other growers' wine, as a member of the 'Groupe des Jeunes" - a dynamic forum for young vignerons - has imbued a determination to make the best in Gevrey, not just in one but in every vintage. His father is proud to have him in the firm, and admits that changes are overdue.
The first task was a thorough review of all the Domaine's practices, starting in the vineyards: here, the aim is to preserve the maximum natural humus and fauna in Gevrey's clay-limestone soils. Now, minimum fertiliser and much hoeing have replaced the more usual herbicides, and strong chemicals, which are slow to degrade, and denature the soil destroying its fragile balance, are avoided. These also kill useful predators on pests such as grape-worm and red spider, so a more ecologically friendly regime of precisely targeted insecticides has been introduced, and herbicides restricted to spot eradication of stubborn grasses.
The Domaine suffered - as did many in the Cote de Nuits - from excessive potassium enrichment of the soil after the last war. This is gradually working its way out of the land; but meanwhile, small deficiencies in other minerals such as magnesium are corrected only after extensive expert soil analyses.
Although the Trapets were among the earlier users of clones in the 1950s, Jean-Louis is considering reintroducing the traditional selection massale for some of his plant material. He still believes it essential to have several different clones in a single vineyard, both to guard against a clone-specific malady, and to add complexity. He is cultivating both his own vineyard policies and his nurseryman to find out which rootstocks are best adapted to the calcareous Gevrey soils.
The problem of rot is part of life in the Cote de Nuits, where the autumns can be wet, where summer hail can split the grapes and where the destructive grape caterpillar is endemic. Jean-Louis is concerned that too rich a soil, especially in nitrogen and sodium, encourages botrytis. To combat rot, he is investigating clones of Pinot Noir which have phenotypically thicker skins and give less compact, more regular bunches.
Yields per vine have been deliberately reduced to add concentration to the wines. Low fertilisation, the use of low-vigour root-stocks and a very severe ebourgonnage, to cut off excess buds early in the growing season all help. De-budding has the additional benefit of spreading out the vine's vegetation and thus encouraging more efficient photosynthesis. Vine vigour is further restrained by planting vines at relatively high density -12,000 vines per hectare, compared with the more usual 9 or 10,000. Appellation rules limit the number of buds per hectare to 80,000, so one is at liberty to achieve this by longer pruning on a lower density, or by short pruning on a high density, which is Trapet's preferred solution.
In 1990, a trial green-pruning was performed, to excise some 30% of the bunches. Jean-Louis believes that this is an optimum, because above this level the vines compensate, leaving the same quantity, but with thinner skins and more dilute juice.
A diminishing, but still prevalent, malady is court-noue or 'fan-leaf' virus which systematically destroys a vine's leaves, diminishing its photosynthetic efficiency and therefore its production of sugar. Trials with selected resistant rootstocks are in progress, but meanwhile, the only solution is to grub up affected vines, disinfect the soil and replant.
As one might expect, harvesting is entirely manual. Jean and Jean-Louis recoil in horror from the thought of harvesting machines in the Cote. They aim to pick at maximum maturity, and are encouraged by their recent experiments with a form of high wire culture to expand the height of the Pinot foliage; this increases both grape sugar content and the concentration of polyphenols - which help to fix colour in young wine and add structure.
The grapes are hand-sorted both in the vineyards and at the cuverie - costly, but important details which help make the difference between good and really fine wine. Once any substandard grapes have been eliminated, the crop is destemmed - up to 95% depending on the vintage - and lightly crushed. The policy is to extract tannins from the skins with a longish cuvaison rather than adding stems which also impart tannins, but of a harsher character. Since the 1990 vintage there has been a deliberate pre-fermen-tive maceration: the grapes are sulphured at the rate of 1 litre per tonne (=1000 kilos = 3 barrels) and then cooled to 16-18° C and then left to macerate for 5 days. This extracts both glycerols, which give wines a certain fleshiness and fatness, and anthocyanins which are valuable colour compounds.
Jean-Louis is also interested by the work of Guy Accad, whom he met in 1990. He has already made some experiments with different levels of pre-fermentive sulphuring, to see how the wines react and, whilst it is too early to evaluate the results, seems inclined to pursue this line of thought further.
The first cuves are yeasted to get fermentation going - 'we have good yeasts at Gevrey' - and the rest soon follow naturally. Alcoholic fermentation and maceration, in open, temperature controlled, cement vats lasts for up to 19 days. Pumping over the juice at strategic moments to ensure temperature equilibrium is interspersed with the use of an overhead piston device to break up the cap.
Tasting rather than analysis is used to determine when tannin extraction is at its optimum; the new wine is then decanted off its lees, given 12 hours debourbage, and run into casks. The lees are gently pressed and the resulting wine added only if it is needed. Jean-Louis believes that tasting is of primary importance in every choice he and his father make. Technical analyses are secondary -background information to be used in conjunction with whatever the palate reports.
The Trapets make sure that all their wood is air-dried, and not force-dried in kilns. They regard new oak not as a source of additional structure, but rather as a means of providing young wines with an environment of controlled oxidation. At present, their Grands Cms see 30-40% of new wood and the Premiers Cms about 20%. Vosges, Allier and Troncais oak are all employed - a proportion of each for each cuvee.The following February, after the malo, each lot is tasted, racked and unified before being returned to barrels. Altogether, the wines spend 11-18 months in cask - least for Village Gevreys and most for the Grands Crus. In June or July of the second year, wines still in cask are racked and assembled in tank before being albumen-fined and, only if necessary, lightly plate-filtered.
The aim of all this is to produce wines which respect to the maximum the characteristics of terroir and vintage: le plus naturel que possible'. The Trapets seek to work with nature and not try to force it to produce a certain style of wine every year.
Do not expect massive, blockbusting wines. The Trapet style tends towards elegance and finesse, with a hallmark backbone of succulent old vine fruit and a gentle lace-like delicacy. Despite this apparent lack of overt muscle, the wines age extremely well. They have structure, no doubt derived from the high proportion of old vines, which seem to sustain and nurture, without making them in any way burly or clumsy.
Whilst the Gevrey Premier Cru tends to an attractive nose of redcurrants and raspberries, more pronounced in riper years, it is the Trapet's Grands Crus Chapelle-Chambertin, Latricieres-Chambertin and Chambertin itself which have established their reputation for superb winemaking.
Part of the uniqueness of the Grands Crus is attributable to the way they react to rainfall: the vine needs a short period of dryness at veraison - the moment when the grapes change green to black - so that they can derive maximum benefit from soil nutrients. Being on slopes, the Grands Crus tend to drain off water better than the flatter Village vineyards lower down.
Trapet's Grands Crus have uniformly deeper colours and noticeably greater concentration and complexity than the rest. This is, of course, as it should be. Chez Trapet, as elsewhere, they are not to be hurried: closed up and difficult to taste for a time, then slowly opening out, almost imperceptibly, like the moving hands of a clock. They tend to be complete, but without any of the lumpiness that one so often finds in this commune.
In 1993, against the instincts of Jean Trapet, Jean-Louis finished the fermentations of all his Grands Crus in cask. This gave the wines an extra touch of 'berryishness' and opulence without compromising on tannin extraction or on overall balance. As always, the Chapelle-Chambertin is the more obviously elegant of the trio, but is by no means outclassed by a very fine Latricieres-Chambertin, although the magisterial Chambertin 'tout court' has a notch more of everything than either.
There used to be a much sought-after Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. In 1990, following an exchange of Chambertin vines with Domaine Jacques Prieur (qv), this was discontinued. In Jean-Louis' view: 'Chambertin should be unique - not several cuvees.' So now there is just one, from 40-80-year-old vines. In fine vintages this is a voluptuous, aristocratic creation, deep-coloured, with complex flavours, splendid length and all the class one expects from this King of Grands Crus.
Jean and Jean-Louis Trapet have made great strides since 1990, particularly in improving the quality of their raw material. Both quality and overall consistency have improved and criticisms in the Iatel970s and early 1980s for lack of concentration are no longer justified. They seem to be a family dedicated to quality and to the maxim that, as for the winemaker so for the drinker, 'a pleasure implies an effort'.