Domaine Trapet Pere & Fils Chambertin Pinot Noir Burgundy Cote de Nuits 2016

Producer note: The fervent biodynamist Jean-Louis Trapet exclaimed that "last year I told you that I have never experienced such an easy growing season as we had in 2015! I should be more careful in the future as I have rarely had such difficulties as we experienced in 2016! The frost caused a lot of problems and particularly so in Marsannay and in Chambertin and to a slightly lesser, but still significant, extent in Latricières. My father told me that in all his years he had never seen such extensive frost damage as we suffered. Then the mildew was especially virulent and all the more so in the vines that had suffered frost injury. In the end we managed but I won't pretend that it was easy. We picked from the 26th of September under ideal conditions and brought in clean and ripe fruit though not very much of it. I used between 25 and 60% whole clusters compared to 50 to 100% in 2015. As to the wines, while I like both 2015 and 2016, the '16s are more Burgundian in spirit in my view due to the fact that they are even more transparent to the underlying terroirs." I was reasonably impressed by the Trapet 2016s and would observe that they mostly bettered the general level of quality that I found elsewhere in Gevrey. With that said, the Trapet 2015s are clearly a notch up if not as classically styled. Trapet noted that the 2015s, revisited below, were bottled in March and April 2017. (Polaner Selections, www.polanerselections.com, NY and Classic Wine Imports, MA, both USA; Berry Brothers & Rudd, www.bbr.com, Corney & Barrow, www.corneyandbarrow.com and Champagnes et Châteaux, www.champagnesandchateaux.co.uk, all UK).