Domaine Francois Raveneau, Chablis Premier Cru, Butteaux 2016

This wine has all the characteristics of Raveneau: Wax, floral notes, oyster shells, lemon, and perfectly integrated oak. Very thightly structured, this wine has screaming intensity and length. This Butteaux comes from 1.5 hectares of 45 year-old vines. Domaine Raveneau is one of Chablis’s finest producers. Jean Raveneau has 7 hectares of vines and produces beautifully crafted wines from three Grands Crus and four Premiers Crus. All the grapes are hand harvested (one of the very few remaining growers in Chablis to do so) and Jean Marie prefers to pick early rather than late, with the aim of preserving the grapes’ acidities. The most sublime and the most celebrated estate of Chablis, the wines of Domaine Raveneau are a rare find—exceptional because the vineyard holdings are almost entirely made of grand cru and premier cru fruit, painfully finite as so few are produced, outstanding because of their tremendous quality and consistency, and unusual given the modesty of the vignerons who create these world-class wines.