Pierre & Louis Trapet

Trapet squared

Anyone who hears the name Trapet in Burgundy thinks of Gevrey-Chambertin: of the Grands Crus Chambertin and Latricières and of an estate the family has farmed since 1859. Pierre and Louis Trapet, the sons of Jean-Louis Trapet, grew up with this heritage, and with a second one in Alsace that their mother Andrée brought into the family. Pierre now works in Riquewihr in Alsace at Trapet Alsace, Louis in the family cellar of Trapet Père & Fils. Two brothers, two regions, two full diaries, and the wish to create something together.

Their bottles wear the idea openly: on the label, coloured rings interlock, and among growers people speak of “Trapet²”, Trapet squared. They found the ground for this joint project neither in Gevrey nor in Riquewihr, but halfway between, in the Côte de Beaune.

A vineyard as dowry

A marriage tipped the balance. Justine, Louis' wife, comes from Auxey-Duresses; her parents' house lies at the foot of the Montagne du Châtelet, and the family owned 1.8 hectares of vines that hardly anyone still worked. For four or five years the brothers brought these plots back into shape, before filling their first vintage of their own in 2020.

It is a patchwork such as only Burgundy knows: tiny pieces in Auxey-Duresses, Pommard, Meursault and Saint-Romain. Some vines were planted in 1924, the oldest Chardonnays in 1932, the Aligoté in 1934, roots that have grown eight decades deep into the limestone. Auxey-Duresses itself, tucked between Saint-Romain and Meursault, is regarded by some connoisseurs as the underrated heart of the Côte de Beaune: the minerality of a Meursault neighbour, the upright Pinot of a cooler combe, at prices that have not yet followed the great names all around.

Aligoté, thought through three times

The brothers' real fascination is a grape that in Burgundy long counted as a supporting actor: Aligoté. Their 60 ares in the climat Sous-Châtelet, named after that very Montagne du Châtelet, face north and were planted in 1934. The neighbouring plots are farmed by Lalou Bize-Leroy for her legendary Domaine d’Auvenay; in such company nobody treats Aligoté as an afterthought.

The brothers vinify the same grapes in three ways. Pressed directly, they give a clear, saline, taut Bourgogne Aligoté “Sous-Châtelet”, which has nothing in common with the thin, sour caricature of the variety. Fermented on the skins, it becomes an amber-coloured macerated wine with a grippy tannic hold. And for the Passerillé the two let the grapes dry on the vine until December, until they are raisin-like in their concentration, a sweet rarity bottled in half-bottles. Three wines, one vineyard, a whole idea of what Aligoté can be.

In the old post relay

The wine is made not in the Côte de Beaune but in the family cellar in Gevrey-Chambertin, a former Relais de Poste, an old posting station. Concrete eggs stand there beside wooden casks and demi-muids; the wines age without fining and are bottled unfiltered. In the vineyard, what the parents lived by still applies: plough instead of herbicide, biodynamic work, hand harvesting, yields limited early.

The reds show how quickly the two have mastered their craft. The Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru from the sites Écussaux and Grands Champs grows on clay-rich soil and fifty-year-old Pinot vines: dark fruit, velvety grip, and a wine that rewards patience. The Pommard “Les Vaumuriens” in turn brings the power of its famous appellation without turning broad. Anyone looking for proof that a great Burgundy family need not stiffen in its inheritance will find it in these bottles: young, clear, and with the promise that lies in that superscript two.