Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru "Les Corbeaux"

Jean-Louis Trapet, seventh generation, built his philosophy around a deliberate contradiction: in Gevrey-Chambertin — a village whose reputation rests on muscle and extract — he pursues the opposite, using zero sulphur from harvest through ageing and keeping his wines open and accessible from release rather than sealing them under reductive protection.

Les Corbeaux sits on the northern slope of the Gevrey premier cru belt, where shallower topsoil over limestone bedrock delivers tighter, more mineral-driven fruit than the richer southern lieux-dits — the site's relative austerity is a structural asset in Trapet's hands.

Hand-harvested and double-sorted (up to 10% of the crop rejected), the fruit undergoes cool pre-fermentation maceration before open-vat fermentation with native yeasts and partial whole-cluster inclusion; extraction is deliberately light — punch-downs at the start, then gentle pump-overs only.

Ageing runs 18–20 months in French oak barriques at 30–40% new oak, transferred by gravity. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a minimal sulphur dose added only at bottling. What sets this apart categorically is the combination of high whole-cluster inclusion with an open, non-reductive élevage — a pairing almost no peer in the Côte de Nuits attempts.

The 2021 vintage, marked by frost-reduced yields and cool ripening, produced wines of vivid acidity and fine-grained tannin structure; Les Corbeaux will reward patience but is already transparent in its limestone-mineral character. Drink 2026–2038.