2015 Chablis Valmur Grand Cru

“The 2016 vintage was complicated from beginning to end, but we're very happy with the wines despite all the problems with the season,” said winemaker Isabelle Raveneau in early June. “We had hail, frost, mildew, rain and drought,” she went on. “We started harvesting on September 28 because the fruit wasn’t ripe enough until then. We didn’t really see rot but our crop was down 40%.” Owing to the small crop, potential alcohol levels were 13% or higher (“but it wasn’t a ‘cold’ maturity as in 2014,” noted Raveneau) and she did not chaptalize. Both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were difficult, according to Isabelle, lasting until February (they’re usually finished by the end of December). She racked the wines off their lees quickly after the malos “because they already had enough fat.” Acidity levels were low in 2016, as in 2015, and Raveneau views these two years as vintages for mid-term aging.

The Raveneaus are almost invariably in the process of bottling when I visit Chablis in early June. This year, Isabelle was reluctant to show the '15s that had been bottled during the week before I stopped by, so I was only able to taste the three '15s that were slated to be bottled a few days after my visit. I have included a new set of notes, even though I reported on these wines last year.

Bernard Raveneau’s daughter Isabelle, who went to winemaking school in Beaune after spending a decade on the commercial/marketing side of wine, has been responsible for making the family’s wines since 2010 and Bernard has technically retired as of the beginning of this year. Isabelle told me that the estate took a direct hit from the pre-harvest hailstorm in 2015, making just one-third to one-half their normal volume in Vaillons, Clos, Blanchots and Montée de Tonnerre. The family began picking the affected parcels on September 3, she told me, adding that although acidity levels were low, based on sugar levels the grapes were almost ready to harvest, and everything except their village parcels was picked at 13% potential alcohol or higher. The harvest was finished in eight days. None of the Raveneau 2015s were chaptalized or acidified. The wines finished their alcoholic and malolactic fermentations quickly—before Christmas—but Isabelle noted that a few wines were allowed to keep some of their malic acidity.

The Raveneaus are normally in the middle of bottling when I visit at the beginning of June, but the 2014s had all been finished in mid-May. Isabelle Raveneau told me that the superb 2014s “are a lot like the 2010s, with great drinkability.” Both vintages, she went on, are richer and deeper than the 2008s. (Incidentally, my notes on the 2014s represent my first tasting of these wines in finished form; last year, I accidentally applied precise scores to these wines rather than projected ranges.)