Super marine inflected nose with hints of iodine, crushed oyster shell, kelp and kerosene. The acid is a marvel with a rippling mineral drive that leaves limestone and chalk in its wake as it broadens across the palate. The wine is spherical and fills every crevice. The finish is long and painfully rocky. The precision is devastating. Peak Chablis.
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Thanks for the note. Having tasted them side by side over several vintages, I have found Raveneau Valmur is far more interesting than his Clos; and shows far greater delineation. Which is good, as I can afford the occasional bottle.
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I haven’t opened any of my Clos yet, so I can’t say from experience, but I hope I land in the same camp. I’ve got 2 bottles of 08 Clos and I’m planning on opening one this year at some point - probably over the holidays. 08 Valmur is probably the best bottle of Rav I’ve had to date, but this was a close second.
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Agreed. I prefer the Valmur. The Clos just doesn’t provide much pleasure. Once I was dining in a restaurant in Chicago. Brought a bottle of Clos. I think iot was the 08. Another guest spotted it and made a comment so I sent him a taste. After dinner I asked him what he thought ans he responded he wasn’t really impressed. That took balls but I agreed.
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I haven’t had a lot of either wine, but I think I would agree about Valmur over Clos. the one thing I would point out, though, is that Clos from almost any producer takes the longest to come around, and tends to underwhelm if you hit it up early. So the 08 Clos may not actually be “ready”. (I had the 08 MdT recently, and it was excellent, but just barely “ready”. Haven’t had the 08 Clos for several years).
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Yeah I’ll be curious to take Clos for a spin. If there’s one thing I’ve learned with Raveneau, it’s decant, decant, decant. I decanted this for 3.5 hours before dinner and it continued to unfold over the next three hours. I could have opened this the day before and it would have been fine.
By and large I agree, both that Valmur can often be better than Clos and that the latter can take a long time to come around. But a bottle of 18 Clos last year outshone the Valmur and was very accessible. In fact probably the best Clos I’ve had. An outlier of a vintage of course, but a great wine.
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Yeah–the air thing is critical. True as well for non-premoxed Dauvissat.
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