Domaine Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Chapelot 2018 750ml

Jean-Marie Raveneau asks for at least five years in bottle before his Chablis is opened; this 2018 Chapelot has now cleared that mark.

Chapelot is a lieu-dit inside Montée de Tonnerre, and the Raveneaus could legally sell it under that better-known name. They do not. The domaine farms 1.1 hectares of it, picks a parcel selection of old vines, and bottles the plot on its own, as importer Luc Corporation explains. The family's own comparison: more refined than their Montée de Tonnerre, no less complexity or length, and a very fine capacity to age.

Isabelle Raveneau described 2018 to Bill Nanson of Burgundy-Report in January 2020. The pick began on Thursday 30 August, almost a week earlier than in 2017, after a summer so dry that, in her words, it was too dry for the maladies; a small rain on 27 and 28 August woke the vines, and the wines came in at 12.5 to 13.2 degrees. This bottle reads 13% on the label. Chablis as a whole had a winter with roughly 1.7 times normal rainfall and a July three to four degrees above average. Nanson found salinity rare across the region in 2018 yet present in every wine here, with a single bottling per cuvée, none before April 2020.

Cellar work is the same from Petit Chablis to Les Clos: hand harvest, fermentation started in tank, ten months in barrel, bottling the following spring. Most barrels are old; where a new one is used, the juice ferments in it from the start, because Jean-Marie holds that tank-fermented wine moved into new oak picks up too much barrel. The mustard-coloured wax over the cork, the importer says, marks a wine meant to be kept. The domaine dates from 1948, when François Raveneau married Andrée Dauvissat; Jean-Marie, Bernard, Isabelle and Maxime now run it.

In the glass

William Kelley, The Wine Advocate, August 2019, scored it 92-94 (as quoted by Wine Away): white peach, green apple, spring flowers and wheat toast, medium to full-bodied and satiny, with lively acids and a long, precise finish. Allen Meadows, Burghound issue 76, October 2019, gave 90-93 (as quoted by Winestar): restrained to the point of being almost mute, with mineral reduction, citrus rind and seashore notes, a richer, rounder palate and a bone-dry, bitter-lemon finish. Nanson adds that the touch of oak visible in youth will fade.

When to open

Kelley's window is 2025 to 2045 and Meadows suggests 2026 onward, both as quoted by the retailers above; the importer relays Jean-Marie's five-year minimum. Reserve Cellar advises 12 to 14 °C; we would not decant.

At the table

Reserve Cellar pairs it with grilled or steamed lobster, or poulet de Bresse with truffles. Our suggestion: oysters.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Domaine François Raveneau; Luc Corporation (Japanese importer); bottle label; Burgundy-Report (B. Nanson, Isabelle Raveneau interview); The Wine Advocate (W. Kelley) as quoted by Wine Away; Burghound (A. Meadows) as quoted by Winestar; Reserve Cellar