2003 Chablis Valmur Grand Cru

.Bernard Raveneau was a bit concerned about the level of reduction in some of the estate's 2004 cuvees, especially those from the left bank.He believes that this characteristic is due to the sulfur products that were used to stave off oidium."We didn't have our normal rains in September to wash off the residue."The result is that a few wines appear less pure today than they are likely to be when they are bottled next year.The Raveneaus did a severe debourbage but then left their wines on their lees longer than usual, without doing batonnage."The wines lacked flesh after the fermentations, but today they are an agreeable surprise," said Bernard.He finds them fleshier and suppler than the 2000s, which he has always considered to be slightly diluted owing to a weekend of rain just before the harvest.Yields in the two years were actually similar, he told me.Most of the 2003s were still in tank, recently filtered and awaiting bottling-a bit later than usual due to what Raveneau described as family issues and personnel problems.The 2003s here are quite promising.The Raveneaus picked early to retain freshness, believing that the fruit was ripe and the potential alcohols were sufficient.They then decided not to chaptalize, and the wines will carry alcohol levels of 12.4% to 12.8% in bottle."High alcohol levels would have accentuated the heaviness of the wines," noted Bernard.

Like 1999 but with better maturity of flavors," is the way Bernard Raveneau describes his family domain's crop of wines in 2003.The fruit was very ripe and no chaptalization was done; natural alcohol levels are in the 12.5% to 13% range.Yields averaged a very low 35 hectoliters per hectare, with the crop level held down by heat, not frost.In fact, Raveneau maintained that there was virtually no loss due to frost.The family does not have vines low on hillsides (they do not own any village parcels), but, according to Raveneau, there were no real problems even in their unprotected hillside sites.The estate's 2002s have turned out extremely well, particularly the grand crus.Bernard Raveneau described 2002 as "an ideal vintage, one we'd like to be able to make every year.The wines have great balancing acids and no dissonance.They're not at all over the top."IWC readers will recall that Raveneau prefers the estate's almost miraculously precise, minerally 2001s to the suppler but less intense 2000s, which he believes to have suffered from a bit of dilution due to rainfall prior to the harvest.