1983 Chambertin

The Chambertin-Cuvee Vieilles Vignes, produced from 80-year-old vines and made on an average of only once every decade (there were 100 cases in 1983), is a decadently rich and opulent Pinot Noir. However, the strong smell of rotting vegetables, aged beef, and the local barnyard may prove too much for many people. Sweet, ripe, long, and very expansive on the palate, this medium- to full-bodied wine should be drunk over the next 2-3 years. This wine, which tasted very good from the cask, appears to be a totally different wine from the bottle. It has an orange/brownish color, suggesting it is 20-25 years old. The wine also exhibited intense, musty, decaying smells of rot to go along with the broad, ripe, smokey, sweet Pinot flavor. Firm tannins are present, but this wine is much more accessible and forward than most 1983s. I have not always been pleased with the Trapet wines. They certainly have an excellent reputation, but in some vintages, they have turned out too light, and show a tendency to turn brown in color at an early age. Jean Trapet, the current Trapet in charge, is a short, affable man. He aged the 1983s 15-18 months in oak barrels, one-third of which are new. His 1983s were bottled after a slight filtration. Trapet used the new "Bouteille Bourgogne" for his 1983s, an ugly, cheap-looking bottle that resembles that used for the generic Cotes du Rhone wines. The style of wine produced here is generally lighter than that made at such domaines as Leclerc, Rousseau, Clair-Dau and Varoilles.