Known for its prestigious Gevrey-Chambertin, in Burgundy, the Trapet family cultivates with the same passion 16 hectares in Riquewihr, including a schoenenburg classified in Alsace-Grand-Cru.
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“I have Alsace pegged to the body,” says Pierre Trapet, winemaker in Riquewihr (Haut-Rhin) for four years. The thirties grew up in the family domain of Gevrey-Chambertin, in Burgundy. The name of trapet is synonymous with excellence and resonates strong in the hearts of wine lovers, especially the Côte-de-Nuits. On the other hand, we are less used to crossing it on the labels of Alsatian flutes.
It is however a family adventure which is played 300 kilometers away, from Burgundy to Alsace. And who owes nothing to chance. Pierre Trapet lives today with his grandmother, Hélène Grayer, in the village neighboring her cellar, in Beblenheim (Haut-Rhin), where the maternal branch has always lived. “We spent our holidays here. It’s all my childhood. I feel more Alsatian than Bourguignon,” recognizes the young winemaker, who speaks today the Alsatian than his mother, Andrée.
When the latter wife Jean-Louis Trapet, in 1999, she joined him at Domaine Bourguignon. “I assisted Jean-Louis in Gevrey, says Andrée Trapet, but I came back regularly to help my parents, who had a hectare and a half of vines in Beblenheim.” She vinifies Alsatian on the 2018, when the next generation takes the relay. From now on, the sons of the Trapet couple are distributed the domains: to Pierre that of Riquewihr, which now reaches 16 hectares; to Louis that of Gevrey, with the identical area. But among the trapets, despite the distance and the theoretical shares, the family remains united and works together.
As proof, this Easter Monday 2020: While France is in full confinement, the parents and their two sons plant vines in francs, a few meters from the Château de Kaysersberg. It is a plot of 17 ares in the heart of the Grand Cru Schlossberg which they have just acquired. “We planted as the ancients did, explains Pierre. Just a piece of stick in the ground, without roots, without rootstock.” A real risk taking in the face of the danger of phylloxera, made possible “thanks to the sandy soil made granite “. Right next to it, the trapets have another plot, which they will rework in stakes (tutors), another test, as the family loves them. “Jean-Louis and I were at the bottom of the plot to prepare the woods and the boys planted with the draw and the file. It took us two days,” says Andrée.
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