2012 Chablis Blanchots

The 2012 Chablis Blanchot jumps from the glass with serious intensity, power and pure texture. A wine of unusual volume and resonance, the 2012 clearly reflects the unique personality of a vintage in which yields were down 50%. The 2012 is a dizzying, totally vertical wine endowed with stunning depth and tons of breed. In a word: captivating.

The 2012 Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots appeared stubbornly laconic on the nose at this stage, although the palate is very powerful and delivers assertive notes of fresh lime, Cornice pear and red apples, seguing into a captivating saline note toward the finish that lingers in the mouth. This broody, but compelling Chablis grand cru will need several years in bottle. Drink 2017-2027+ Though I have walked past many times and tasted their wines on many a pleasurable occasion, this was actually my first, and I hope not last, visit to the most iconic of Chablis producers. “Raveneau set the standards of excellence few aspire to,” wrote Rosemary George in her indispensable (and over-looked guide) to Chablis. Few would disagree with that sentiment, though I would never say that Raveneau is beyond reproach. Les freres Raveneau, Bernard and Jean-Marie presently run the estate and it was the former that opened the door in the Rue de Chichee, accompanied by his daughter Isabelle. Before commencing with the tasting that encompassed both 2013 and 2012, I asked Bernard about the differences between the two vintages. “The 2013 has been in barrel for around 6 or 7 weeks,” he told me. “We started the harvest on October 2, while the 2012 began on September 22. The 2013s are quite rich with slightly lower acidity than usual. The Right Slope wines are more tendu (taut) and interesting. We were a bit worried about the 2013s with regard to the quality of the grapes and the lack of acidity. They are not typical of Chablis, but they are very open and exotic. You find more minerality as you go up through the range, and vine age had an impact. There was 30mm of rain on Saturday, October 5 and it was so strong that the ripe berries fell off of the vine. The 2012 is completely different. It is more ‘Chablis’: perfect and very healthy grapes, small in terms of yield, around half the normal harvest. This was due to the spring frost, bad weather during flowering, a bit of hail and a lot of wind. Just before putting up the wires together we had a storm and a lot of the canes were damaged. There was a humid July with a lot of rain and so we decided to leaf pluck. Then there was a heatwave in August when the temperature was so high that some of the berries were burned. But in September, there were perfect conditions. There was slightly higher acidity in 2012 than 2013 but more homogeneity.” I then asked Bernard if there was a vintage he might compare 2012 to, and after consideration he suggested a mixture of the 1994 and 2001. N.B. Kermit Lynch informed me that they have not set the prices of either 2012 or 2013 at time of writing. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

Pale bright yellow-green. Captivating aromas of lime blossom, licorice and white pepper, complicated by a whiff of petrol. Sweet, plush, rich and deep; a step up in texture from the premier crus but with lovely lemony acidity keeping it firm. Finishes long and bright, with enticing high notes of lemon zest and flowers. Bernard Raveneau noted that allowing these wines to settle in tank for two months prior to the bottling enables the Raveneaus to cut their levels of free sulfur to 25 to 30 grams per liter and not dry out the wines during the bottling process.