2007 Chablis Montmains

In tank awaiting imminent fining and bottling, Raveneau’s 2007 Chablis Montmains displays a personality slightly split between brash citricity on the one hand and, on the other, a combination of textural waxiness and creaminess with lanolin and vanillin notes from barrel. A gentian-like floral note wafts all the way through to a finish uniting a bite of citrus rind and white pepper with chalk dust, salt, and refreshing citrus. This will need some time in bottle, but I suspect will be well worth following for at least 5-7 years. Bernard Raveneau views his bright, mineral-inflected 2007s – picked from September 10-16 – as potentially richer versions of 2004, since the former, he indicates, have gained in textural allure during their elevage. That also explains why he did not plan to bottle most of these 2007s until late spring or summer, and I have accordingly not tasted them since bottling. (Incidentally, Raveneau is very excited and intrigued by his 2008s, wines with an effusion of floral and herbal youthful aromatics that he says he has never before encountered, but whose finished results he speculated might combine aspects of 2006 and 2007.) Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel (510) 524-1524