2004 Chablis Valmur Grand Cru

The Raveneaus had just started the 2006 harvest on the day I stopped by to taste 2005s and 2004s (September 14). I had a stunning tasting here, as the 2004s have turned out very well and the richer 2005s are among the finest examples of their vintage. Bernard Raveneau believes the 2004s will be superb in about five years, but does not think that this vintage possesses the matiere of either 2005 or 2002 here. Raveneau told me the quality of fruit in 2005 was exceptional, and that the estate had very little rot to worry about. He described the first two '05s as aromatic but not particularly complex vins de plaisir, but the rest, he said, are even richer than the 2002s while retaining similar minerality.

.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.