2008 Domaine Raveneau Chablis Blanchot Grand Cru
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Tasting notes
I can't pass up on Raveneau's 2008 Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. A spectacular magnum of the 2001 Les Clos a few weeks ago was a great prelude to a recent visit to the domaine, a tasting that left me with an intense desire for a bottle with a little age. This is it. What a gorgeous wine. Still quite youthful, the 2008 Blanchot takes several hours in the decanter to start opening up, but even then only reveals a fraction of its ultimate potential. Still, there is plenty to enjoy in the creamy, expansive flavors and enveloping texture. The Blanchot is especially delicious at the end of the dinner, with our cheese course. Readers holing the 2008 will want to cellar it for at least a few years, as the flavors aren't fully open yet.
Critic scores
Allen Meadows, Burghound
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Scents of gunpowder green tea, crushed stone, ocean spray, and grapefruit rind rise from the glass of Raveneau 2008 Chablis Blanchots, which then displays a breadth and richness that one would not have anticipated from the nose. Floral perfume and alkaline, iodine, and maritime mineral notes continue on an almost custardy-rich, seamless palate and into a finish of estimable length, although the overall impression here is relatively restrained, despite the wine’s amplitude and textural richness. Certainly the sense of minerality goes all the way through. I suspect this will need more time in bottle than most of its siblings to really blossom and would anticipate being rewarded for a dozen or more years. Bernard Raveneau had been among those growers most bursting with enthusiasm about his 2008s when I had visited the following April, likening them to 1996s but with effusively floral and high-toned herbal aromatics such as he said he had never experienced in his young wines. As with the 2007s (and compared with 2009s that Raveneau expected to give shorter elevage), the collection here was bottled largely in late spring and early summer, only two wines having been bottled when I tasted them this April. (The others were in tank or pre-assembled for me.) But it was already clear by then that this collection has justified its author’s initial excitement and confidence. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524
Pale, green-tinged yellow. Tangy lemon oil, menthol, spices and crushed stone on the very ripe nose. Spicy, ripe and deep on the palate; fatter and broader than the premier crus here but less expressive today in spite of its ripeness and spiciness. Finishes very dry and long, with some evidence of spicy oak. This will likely need a good eight to ten years to approach maturity.
(from tank) Pale yellow-green. Reduced, slightly metallic aromas of lemon and white flowers. Penetrating acidity and citric cut give outstanding power and thrust to the palate. For all its stoniness, this avoids coming off as overly austere thanks to its near-perfect sugar/acid balance. Finishes with outstanding length and grip, but this will require at least six to eight years to harmonize its elements.