I always used to buy Dauvissat Clos in most good years, but can’t say that I have bought Preuses in more than a couple. I have had very good Dauvissat’s and mostly Clos over the years, but I still have not had one that blew me away, even drinking them 15 years or so out. On the other hand, I have had quite a few Raveneau’s that were great, particularly a vertical of Clos that a friend ITB treated us to that was fabulous. Now, I admit that the Raveneau’s are somewhat stylistically unique and recognizable, for me in the same way that Coche-Dury’s and older Leflaives are pretty darn recognizable versions of their terroirs, and the fact that they do ring my bell may be a sign that I enjoy their expression of Chablis more than what some may consider a more classic style. Not that it does me any good, since I cannot find Raveneau except at inflated grey market prices which I refuse to pay.
Like Coche, Raveneau has many admirers. I can’t argue with them. I just prefer a less recognizable winemaking signature in my white wines. (And, I’ve never liked Z-H or Deiss , from Alsace, either for similar reasons.) Finding tropical stuff in wines that generally don’t have them…or “flint” "
matchstick or unusual stuff consistently in tasting notes doesn’t make me want to have those wines.
Not arguing it isn’t “good”…just not my taste…and…not really of interest to me to explore a region’s wines. But, like yours, and thanks to the Lynching of various of those wines (which generally means super-high prices and almost nothing having made its way to the east coast), especially, Raveneau, I don’t have as much experience with them as I’d like (unlike with Dauvissat, which I have had lots of experiences with…and almost always wow me, though they do need substantial aeration at any age…including the '96 Clos last weekend.)
Plenty of love here. 
Fevre
Christian Moreau
Wow. Good to know about Fevre.
I love Gilbert Picq and Louis Michel. We may not “need” them, but I am certainly happy to own and drink them.
Love the wines. No availability around here.
internet!
“Need” is a funny word, isn’t it? 
Fevre switched the lower levels of it’s production over to diam corks several years ago, and I believe more recently switched the grand crus over (I could be wrong about the last part). I remember also that they changed a portion of their production process considerably to exclude oxygen as much as possible. this was a few years ago and also don’t remember the details. the nice thing has been that they have been very upfront about acknowledging the problem and proactive about trying to do something about it.
Raveneau and Dauvissat really haven’t had much premox trouble, so I can understand them shrugging their shoulders a bit.
I could make do with Raveneau, Dauvissat and Fevre, if worse came to worst! (But I would miss the Michel stainless-style).
They’ve gradually moved to DIAM closures, starting with their villages and Premier Crus (I think the PCs were switched in 07 or thereabouts) and the GC after the 08 vintage.
Not super helpful from my perspective as i have a half-case of the 08 Preuses in storage and am holding off nervously……
Strangely enough I do not do much internet retail buying.
Robert - re your question on older Fevre, had a fantastic Clos 2000 a couple of months ago. Better than a Raveneau Clos 2007 some months earlier (too much high-solids) for me, partly due to the benefit of extra development of course. I think the preferences between Raveneau / Dauvissat / Fevre really just come down to style and flavor profile preferences, accentuated in certain vintages. Low vs high availability plays a role for some, no doubt.
There is no absolute difference in quality between Raveneau and Dauvissat . That is because I believe you ( " we " ) are not capable to identify them blind consistently when comparing the same lieu dit in various years ( i.e. Clos from both producers in 02, 04 , 05 , 06 etc ). Our wine club did it a couple of times and while we scored it right maybe 7 times out of 10 , certainly not more .
Last time we did this ( Clos from various vintages , 10 experienced tasters , wines at least 5 years old ) , the difference between both wines was never much more than 1 or 2 points ( /100 ) and people guessed all over the place . Both are great wines .
I like to think that I prefer Raveneau and that his wines age better ( having tasted a splendid Clos 1973 ) but blind tastings show that I like Dauvissat almost equally .
Just back from 11 days in France staying at 3 of our favourite hotel restaurants: Les Crayeres [Reims], Cote St.Jacques [Joigny] and Domaine des Hauts de Loire while taking the opportunity to buy from some of our favourite producers in Chablis, Sancerre, Menetou-Salon, Montlouis and Chinon.
In Chablis we tasted and bought from William Fevre [basic and 1ers Montmains and Vaulorent] in their shop in rue Rathier and from Nathalie & Gilles Fevre [basic, 1ers Fourchaume and Vaulorent and GC Preuses] at their new state-of-the-art winery at Fontenay-pres-Chablis.
For those who are not aware of the ‘other Fevre’ family I can thoroughly recommend their wines for quality and value. The charming Nathalie conducted the tasting [arranged by email] and showed us around the impressive new facility.
As for our favourite Chablis we have a catholic taste ranging across the usual subjects most of whom have been mentioned.
However in view of UK prices we drink our Dauvissat and Raveneau [particularly] only in France where, even in top restaurants, prices are often less than half UK retail.
A young but still delicious 2008 Raveneau Valmur was a great success with dinner at Cote St. Jacques.
Like others I put Raveneau at the peak with Dauvissat and Fevre in close attendance.
Other favourites include Louis Michel, J-P & B Droin [better and better], Christian Moreau and for value, in particular the GCs Vaudesir and Les Clos, Lynn Marchive’s Domaine des Malandes.
As far as premox is concerned we have certainly been fortunate without being completely free of it in our Chablis and, without seeking to focus on this separate issue, William Fevre certainly took the problem very seriously addressing the whole range of issues implicated in the phenomenon: winemaking [SO2 levels, new oak, batonnage, pressing et al], the closure [DIAM] as well as investing [again as part of a Henriot/Bouchard/Fevre programme] in a new state-of-the-art bottling line to deal with one of the key suspects: entrained oxygen.
I agree with you, but I think we are in the minority.
A bit under the radar is one of my Chablis guys, Romain Collet (of Jean Collet). Five years at the helm, the kid is making moves.
The original question asked for Clos, Preuses, and Valmur bests.
Certainly, his Valmur is up there with the best. His les Clos is damn good, but not yet a track record enough to put him in the best company. For the $$, damn good.
Tanzer is on to him, fwiw.
Anyone like Bessin?
I wonder about that…certainly, on the west coast that might be the case. Kermit’s wines are more prevalent out there.
But…i hardly know anyone in the east who has owned any Raveneneau as a result of Lynch’s “system”.
I am a much bigger fan of Dauvissat wines, but have tasted many fewer Raveneaus…over the years, so my experience is skewed.
I’ll drink Dauvissat over Raveneau any day, all day. I certainly wouldn’t claim any substantial correlation, but I’ve notice that White burg drinkers prefer Raveneau and Chablis drinkers lean towards Dauvissat.