From barrel the 2007 Chablis Blanchots - from a high-elevation eastern exposure and some of the estate's oldest vines - displays aromas of high-toned citrus oil toasted nuts ocean breezes and quarry dust. Startlingly gripping and pungent this might not represent the last word in finesse but it makes an emphatic zesty intensely saline and stony statement that I am very timid to contradict! This really tugs at the salivary glands and finishes with an energetic crescendo of citrus and diverse expressions of things mineral. When questions are raised about the ability of great Chablis - and Burgundy in general - to transcend what one can imagine issuing from grapes here is a prime exhibit to offer. I suspect this will be engrossing to follow for 8-10 years if not longer.-David Schildknecht

It seems that each succeeding wine is more aromatically elegant than the prior wine and again the nose here is incredibly pure layered airy indeed almost lacy with perfumed notes of dried white roses salt water oyster shell and iodine that complement to perfection the classy refined and textured flavors brimming with both minerality and dry extract that buffers the firm acid spine on the strikingly long finish. This is not as powerful as the Montée de Tonnerre but it's finer in fact to the point that the Raveneau Blanchots is a wine of finesse indeed even delicacy in 2007. In a word wonderful.