2011 Chambertin
Buying options
Tasting notes
Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune, the nose on Jean-Louis Trapet’s 2011 Chambertin Grand Cru takes time to settle down, eventually offering baked cherries, strawberry, a touch of bacon fat (perhaps just a hint of brettanomyces ?) and earth, later manifesting marine influences like Armand Rousseau’s. The palate is medium-bodied with quite dense tannins, good body, but missing finesse toward the finish that feels more forward than it ought.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
Good bright medium red. Deeply pitched aromas of red berries and musky, truffley underbrush. Sweet on entry, then rich and silky in the middle, showing the most volume of these 2011s, with better acidity than the nose suggests. Juicy cherry and earth flavors communicate good dimension. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and a slight dry edge. More harmonious today than the Latricieres but I'm not sure it's longer. These wines should give pleasure relatively early. Trapet describes his 2011s as "jovial and vibrant, like the '89s. They don't have huge maturity but they're phenolically ripe without high alcohol."
A huge wine for the year, Trapet's 2011 Chambertin graces the palate with dark blue/purplish fruit, violets, cloves and savory herbs. Even with all of its intensity, the 2011 is a deceptively mid-weight Chambertin with fabulous balance and class. It should drink well relatively early.
Bright medium red. Shows all of the best elements of the Chapelle and Latricieres: cherry, raspberry, rose petal and earth. Utterly silky on entry, then round, tactile and subtle in the middle-palate, with mint and licorice nuances adding interest to the red fruit and underbrush flavors. The most filled-in of these 2011s, finishing with broad tannins and excellent lift and length.