Chablis Premier Cru - Butteaux - Francois Raveneau 2008
The domain
Born in 1948 from the marriage of two great Chablis families (the Raveneau and the Dauvissat), the Domaine Raveneau is the benchmark for Chablis. Indeed, and for several decades now, this estate has been the greatest expression of what a Chablis wine can give.
The estate, quite compact, covers 7.5 ha, notably in Butteaux, Chapelot and Montée de Tonnerre for the Premiers Crus, Valmur, les Clos and Blanchot for the Grands Crus.
All wine spends at least one year in barrel. The resulting wines are lively, ample and complex.
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Size: 75 cl |
Country: France |
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| Region: Burgundy |
Culture: traditional agriculture |
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| Grape variety: Chardonnay |
Tasting: Scents of green tea, mint, bergamot, gentian and honeysuckle, as well as saline and alkaline maritime notes, rise seductively from the glass of Raveneau's 2008 Chablis Butteaux. This is one of those 2008s that feels like a 2007 on the palate, with the same strange combination of maritime elements (we imagine kelp and driftwood) as its predecessor, as well as a sensation of pure chalk . Subtle cream as well as notes of lanolin and vanilla indicate the effects of wood and lees, and I suspect - a hypothesis Raveneau does not rule out - that the strong mineral characteristics of this site as well (in this particular vintage ) its citric character and its prominent floral and herbaceous aspects, can bring out the oak notes by simple contrast. This cuvée presents an impressive quantity of pure extract which needs time and which could well develop more on the palate, even in the short term. It should deserve at least a decade of attention. |