Domaine Rapet is the most important landowner on the Hill of Corton with a viticultural history that goes back to 1795. Over the past few vintages, the ratings given by William Kelley for the Wine Advocate, have been some of the best scores awarded on the hill of Corton, vying with the greatest names in the region (e.g. the 2020 Rapet Corton scores higher than DRC’s Corton). Vincent Rapet has been at the helm of this historic estate since 1990 and has taken the winemaking level to even higher levels of precision than his predecessor. Today it is the turn of Rapet’s son Robin. From tasting the domaine’s 2021 vintage, it is clear that the success of the estate is assured. Robin has his father’s eye for detail. He has introduced aquarium heaters that can encourage slow fermentation on a barrel-by-barrel basis, rather than warming the entire cellar. He uses concrete eggs on certain cuvees to add a tenser, fresher profile to the wine. No expense is spared at bottling either, using Diam corks and the bottling line is nitrogen-assisted. Despite some expensive equipment, the vinification at the Domaine is very traditional with natural yeasts, fermentation in barrel, amphora tanks and cement eggs and 12 months ageing in barrel with about 20-30% new oak, depending on the wine.

This is an estate that continues to go from strength to strength and Robin Rapet’s presentation of his 2021 wines was exceptional. For quality and price it is hard to argue why any Burgundy lover would look elsewhere. He offers an outstanding line-up of Cote de Beaune wines, from regional to grand cru appellation These wines are exemplary and hugely satisfying. During our tasting Robin made a statement which truly describes his wines – he said “the terroir speaks in our wines”. Bearing in mind that his 20 plus hectares cover the appellations of Chorey, Savigny, Pernand, Beaune, Aloxe and Corton and Corton-Charlemagne (producing 22 different AC’s), this was an educational tour de force in soil type, composition, vineyard position, exposition and age of the vines.