This could be from nowhere but Chablis with its wonderfully penetrating nose of green fruit, citrus, mineral reduction and oyster shell aromas that presently display no hint of secondary character. The broad-scaled yet refined flavors are rich and generous yet retain a fine sense of underlying detail before culminating in a gorgeously intense, pure and driving finish that displays magnificent persistent as well as plenty of the typical Valmur austerity. In a word, brilliant and it's only going to get better with time.

Valmur, with its southern exposure, showed a bit more ripeness last year than is the case this year, and for that reason, I have to give the nod to the 2010 version over its 2009 counterpart. The nose is deep, closed and classy, wafting from the glass in a blend of apple, pink grapefruit, anise, complex minerality, orange peel and a touch of lemongrass. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and racy, with a very good core of fruit, fine focus and cut and excellent length and grip on the nascently complex and very refined finish. Really, a beautiful and complete bottle of Valmur, and if one will have to drink it on the early side, that will not be too strenuous of a task! (JG) 95+

The Raveneau 2010 Chablis Valmur displays chalk dust and fusil notes, pit and pip piquancy, as well as strong underlying extract, in all of which respects it resembles the 2010 Montee de Tonnerre I tasted alongside. But what a site-driven divergence there is from that starting point! Here we experience the finesse of alluring aromatic adjuncts -- lemongrass, iris, gentian and wintergreen -- as well as mouthwatering suggestions of shrimp shell reduction and oyster liqueur; and the finish is both strikingly buoyant for its vintage and downright reverberative in an interactive manor especially familiar from this estate’s Les Clos. (DS)