Domaine Gerard Raphet Morey Saint Denis Vieilles Vignes 2018

Rich and polished, mouthcoating but finesse-filled, this beautiful bottle will knock you out. Another “restaurant wine” that we would not normally have access to --- amazing stuff!

A village wine that ages in step with the finest premier cru bottles, Raphet selects old-vine fruit (60 years or older) from ‘Clos des Ormes’ in Morey-Saint-Denis, as well as fruit from the Clos Saint Denis Grand Cru adjacent 1er Cru, Morey Millandes. Fermented on indigenous yeasts in tank and then aged in older French oak barrels (15% new) for 18 months. It is then bottled unfined and unfiltered as are all of Raphet’s wines. FANTASTIC.

The wines of Gérard Raphet are a real treat for Burgundy lovers. No Raphet ever went to enology school; winemaking has been passed from father to son, and now daughter, through four generations. There’s no pontificating, no philosophy — just the rhythm of a day that starts before sunrise, spent in the vineyard tending their old-vines and the rest in the cellar, gently coaxing the wines to greatness... Raphet is the real deal. We have a scant few cases of this GEM. Please act quickly!

PAIRING IDEAS: We’re feeling roasted/sauteed chicken, with mushrooms, preferably morels. Cream or not, your choice. Herbs or not, your choice. Mostly let the wine shine, and shine it will!

MUSIC SUGGESTIONS: We don’t know why, but the beautiful instrumental song and guitar of Jimmy Page (I know, right?) in the song “Bron-Yr-Aur” seems perfect when drinking a fine Burg like this. If only it was more than 2 minutes. Fun fact: Bron-Yr-Aur is a foresty place in Wales where the band wrote Led Zeppelin III after their U.S. tour.