2017 Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru

The 2018 harvest started on August 30 at Raveneau. “It was our second-earliest harvest,” Isabelle Raveneau told me. “Only 2003 was earlier.” Tasted from barrel, the wines are soft and supple, but have plenty of that signature Raveneau stylishness. The 2017s have even more, though. More tension, more nuance and more expression of place. Sadly, yields were down 30%, which is not as severe as 2016, when production was down a whopping 50%. As always, the wines are fermented (both primary and secondary) in stainless steel, and then racked into barrel for élevage. Occasionally some lots are fermented in wood, but that is only for new barrels that need to be seasoned. Highly coveted by winelovers around the world, the Raveneau Chablis remain distinctive and soulfully beautiful.

One of my favourite “tweets” of the year is when I can type: “It’s Raven’eau clock”. Given its worldwide renown, it is a discrete domaine that you could easily walk past if you do not spot the signage above your head. As usual I met with Isabelle Raveneau, who is always one of the most refreshingly candid winemakers in town. She takes the responsibility of managing Chablis’ most famous address seriously, but her down-to-earth sensibility and wry humour means that she keeps everything in proportion. The only matter that she finds irksome, rightly so in my opinion, is the astronomical prices the domaine’s wines fetch on the secondary market. She escorted me through the 2016s in bottle and 2017s out of barrel, the former having been bottled a week prior to my ringing their doorbell.

“Like everyone, we had frost damage in 2017. It lasted about a week. Temperatures were low, and the humidity made it worse. If it is just one or two nights then it doesn’t do too much damage. It was problematic in the Grand Crus and in Montée de Tonnerre, basically everything on the Right Bank – different areas to 2016. For example, in 2017 Valmur was badly damaged, but in 2016, not at all. The 2016 was more like a winter frost and 2017 more like a spring frost. We installed candles in Les Clos and apart from that we just prayed. We don’t have any vineyard with spray protection. Except in Les Clos nobody is protecting with candles – you need to have enough people doing that [for it to be effective]. The Left Bank was normal in terms of yield and damage. We picked early, starting on Tuesday 5 September and finished the following Monday, over seven days, normal for our domaine. In 2017 we have lost around one-third whereas in 2016 we lost around half the crop.”

“In 2016 we had high mildew pressure with some botrytis. It was complicated. The 2017 is a small yield but the growing season was smooth: rain when we needed some and then sunshine. The only bad thing was the spring frost. Even the flowering went well for parcels not damaged by the frost, the fermentation nice and easy. There was more heat in the cellar, so the malolactic fermentation finished before Christmas, which is not always the case.

Like Isabelle, I find more enjoyment locked inside those gestating 2017s than in 2016. That is not to say that 2016 is not without its gems, for example a brilliant La Fôret and a scintillating Montée de Tonnerre. Yet the 2017s appear to have greater vivacity and tension, perhaps more terroir expression with killer offerings from (again) Montée de Tonnerre and Vaillons, a stunning Blanchots and a Les Clos that will vie for wine of the vintage.