I’ve had the privilege of drinking many incredible wines this year, and the frequency of those wines tends to ramp up significantly during the short window that makes December so special. The surprise this year: my WOTY came from my own cellar. I’m relatively young compared to many of the folks I drink with, so I don’t have the luxury of a deep cellar built when Burgundy prices were more reasonable. As a result, I have to be very selective with what I purchase, and I spend a lot of time hunting—because I genuinely enjoy the hunt.
Two and a half years ago, I had my Raveneau epiphany in Burgundy. It was a 2008 Vaillons, and since that day I’ve obsessively hunted this producer. Having drunk a lot of Raveneau over the last two years, I sometimes wonder whether I would have become so obsessed had my first Raveneau not been a 2008—there is just something so special about 2008 Raveneau (also demonstrated by a 2008 Valmur shared with @Nick_Christie and @robertl earlier this year). It is one of the great vintages for the domaine. The wines are mineral, intense, savory, chameleon-like, and dramatic. They evolve endlessly in the glass, often taking seven to eight hours to fully unfold. For this reason, I’m firmly in the “decant Raveneau” camp—you simply won’t get the full experience unless you have eight hours to spend with the wine.
On to the notes: There are no perfect wines, but there are perfect bottles, and this bottle was perfect. You knew it from the sound of the cork, immediately followed by intense aromatics showing impressive oceanic lift straight from the bottle, before even a splash had been poured. Chablis aromatics (even Raveneau’s) are often a study in detail, nuance, and typicity, but rarely power—this wine was raw. Billowing from the glass—cold, salty, and brisk—it smelled like the ocean, backed by a symphony of flint, smoke, iodine, and cereal dust.
On the palate it was racy to the extreme, diamond-sharp. Followed over eight hours, an intense thread of acidity slowly carved away at a block of limestone, making way for pure white and citrus fruit as the evening progressed. The wine was rocky, and over time those rocks seemed to dissolve as it became more and more saline. The dry extract was impressive—it stuck to your teeth—as hints of honey, kerosene, and ginger simmered long after the final sip.
WOTY.
