2008 Chablis Valmur

Tasted after the corresponding Blanchots, Raveneau’s 2008 Chablis Valmur brings one back stunningly to an uncanny sense of lift and refinement as well as introducing piquant nut oil and sweetly savory as well as saline intimations of scallop. The texture here is creamy yet luscious, refreshing citrus accompany its sense of buoyancy. Wafting hedge flower, rosemary, and rowan perfume, citrus oils, iodine, kelp, and purple plum distillate are among the elusive elements in this subtly complex display that lingers with extraordinary length. “Refined length and delicacy along with density, that’s typical Valmur,” says Raveneau in apt summation. I expect this beauty will prove worth lingering over for hours, or for 12-15 years. The 2007, incidentally, performed fabulously this spring. Bernard Raveneau had been among those growers most bursting with enthusiasm about his 2008s when I had visited the following April, likening them to 1996s but with effusively floral and high-toned herbal aromatics such as he said he had never experienced in his young wines. As with the 2007s (and compared with 2009s that Raveneau expected to give shorter elevage), the collection here was bottled largely in late spring and early summer, only two wines having been bottled when I tasted them this April. (The others were in tank or pre-assembled for me.) But it was already clear by then that this collection has justified its author’s initial excitement and confidence. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

Pale, green-tinged yellow. Mint, minerals, citrus fruits and a strong note of anise on the nose. Densely packed but at the same time racy, with terrific energy and cut to the flavors of lemon, lime and crushed stone. With its bracing, almost youthfully sharp finish, this really stimulates the taste buds.

(in tank) Pale yellow. Rather inexpressive nose hints at spices, with citrus fruits and minerals in the background. Large-scaled and rich in the mouth, with a strong core of sweet fruit that seems unformed today. The wine's sugars are currently masking its underlying acidity, but there's plenty of energy here. Finishes very ripe and long. But the 2007 version is more perfumed and precise.