2006 Domaine Raveneau Chablis Valmur Grand Cru
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Tasting notes
This is aromatically fresher, finer and more elegant with a slightly austere and reserved nose of green fruit and oyster shell where the latter component also characterizes the delicious, serious and almost aggressively mineral flavors that culminate in a penetrating and explosive finish. A striking and austere wine with really beautiful acid/fruit/dry extract balance and huge length that doesn't seem to end. One of the most serious '06s of the vintage that is simply flat out great.
Critic scores
Allen Meadows, Burghound
The Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
According to Raveneau, the airy exposure of its site inherently lends more elegance to his 2006 Chablis Valmur and less weight or opulence than the Blanchots. (The Valmur, too, originates with a high average age of vine.) Diverse flowers and herbal high tones in the nose usher in a remarkably polished, refined palate, one no less tactile in its mineral dimensions than the Blanchots, but more transparent, and with a lift that matches its wafting floral perfume and a purity of yellow plum and grapefruit that are seductively succulent. This unforgettably persistent, truly grand cru should dazzle for 12-15 years. Bernard Raveneau is an unabashed partisan of his 2005s – and no wonder, based on the subset of those that I tasted, including a magnificent Valmur which he rightly terms “complete” and “close to his ideal.” Raveneau is less effusive in praise of his 2006s – each of which I tasted from a selection of barrels – opining that lavish fruit and richness are precisely this collection’s fortes. I think he underestimates the depth of his own 2006s, and only hope I have opportunity to revisit some of them in five or ten years. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524
Pale yellow. Pure but reticent nose offers cooler notes of lemon, acacia flower and minerals; closed today but conveys much more lift than the Blanchots. Then tactile, intensely flavored and firmly structured, with a wonderfully light touch for such a concentrated wine. In its sheer definition of fruits, flowers and minerals, this transcends the vintage. Finishes vibrant and very long, with a rare floral intensity that is simultaneously subtle and palate-staining.
Good pale, green-tinged color. Subtle, pure, perfumed aromas of lime, powdered stone and spearmint. The palate offers a subtle sweetness but bright acidity and underlying minerality give the flavors terrific precision and stony cut. A very classic style, at least as closed as the Blanchots but not at all hard, thanks to a lovely sugar/acid balance. The exhilarating, palate-staining flavors of white grapefruit, lemon and stone perk up the salivary glands. This one really captured my attention today.