Domaine François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru ‘Vaillons’ 2024

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Domaine François Raveneau

In the Vineyard

Today, the Raveneau domaine encompasses 10 hectares of vine holdings across three Grand Cru and six Premier Cru sites. These include small plots in Blanchot, Les Clos, and Valmur, as well as in the Montée de Tonnerre, Les Vaillons, Butteaux, Chapelot, Montmains, and Forêt. The house also produces a Chablis Villages and Petit Chablis.

The average age of the house’s vines is 40 years with some dating back to the 1930s. Over the decades, the Raveneau domaine has implemented plot-by-plot vine replanting with about two-thirds of plants in the Grand Cru Blanchot vineyard dating to as far back as 1935 while the Petit Chablis site has Chardonnay from as recently as 2010.

Each of the domaine’s plots is treated with the same care, regardless of appellation level. They are traditionally farmed with techniques such as manual plowing the norm to promote soil and vine health. During the growing season, disbudding helps to control yields and, therefore quality, while careful trellising ensures that the fruit is exposed to optimal sunlight. This is especially important considering that, typical of Chablis, across its holdings the domaine’s vines can face south, southeast, southwest, or east so trellising needs to be tailored to each plot. Harvest is by hand to facilitate fruit quality sorting in the vineyard and prevent damage to grapes leading to unwanted oxidation.

The challenge is to mitigate Chablis’ inclement climate and to ensure that ripe grapes display an ideal maturity and acidity ratio for vinification and that the unique features of the region’s signature Kimeridigian and Portlandian soils shine through.

In the Winery

In the winery, the team implements a philosophy of minimal intervention. After harvesting, the grapes undergo pressing right away followed by alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeast to further allow distinctive terroir expression. This stage takes place in stainless steel so there’s no oak influence and pure fruit flavors can develop unhindered, an important feature of Chablis wines. Afterwards, the wines are removed from their gross lees and start the maturation process with fine lees in barrel. Only a tiny quantity of this oak is new.

Indeed, the domaine makes a point of aging wines in small, used barrels (around seven years old) to add structure while minimizing the presence of oak character in the finished wines. This step takes 15 to 32 months depending on the appellation. The wines are finessed with a further three to six months in stainless steel after barrel maturation and some see additional bottle aging of six months for further balance before release.

The 2024 Vintage at Domaine François Raveneau

Isabelle Raveneau explained that the 2024 growing season as one that “passed relatively well as there were only a few concerns, such as frost and a so-so flowering, before a much more challenging month of August. This is because the first two weeks were extremely hot and dry and then on the 19th, roughly 60 mm of rain fell, which combined with the still warm conditions unleashed a wave of botrytis. When that occurs so near to the harvest, there’s nothing to be done but hope your fruit maturities increase quickly. We picked extremely fast from the 1st to the 5th of September but it rained on the first and thus conditions weren’t the best if your goal is to pick as far as possible. There was some sorting for the worst affected bunches but overall, it wasn’t anything very much out of the ordinary. Yields were good but not better at around 40 hl/ha though certainly better than the 20 to 25 hl/ha we obtained in 2024. Sugars were okay at around 12% potential alcohols and most wines were lightly chaptalized. We had no trouble with the primary fermentations, which were followed by normal malolactics. The post-malo pHs are slightly higher than normal at around 3.4 yet the wines don’t drink like the acidities are soft, in fact it’s to the contrary as they seem quite energetic. I like the generous textures and while I wouldn’t describe the ’25s as classic, they’re more classic than I expected.” I agree with Raveneau’s take on her ’25s as do they appear to be fresh, inviting and balanced. I also revisited the Raveneau 2024s, which were mostly bottled in April and May 2026; note that there is no Montmains in 2024 due to the tiny yields. As an aside I have always liked the Chapelot from Raveneau (it is rarely seen as the production is limited to 1,200 to 1,500 bottles when it is declared) and while there was one declared in 2023, there will not be one in either 2024 or 2025.

Bughound

Where in the World is Domaine François Raveneau?

Domaine François Raveneau is based in Chablis, Burgundy, France.

Click on a map to enlarge 🔎

The Chablis governing body has an excellent interactive map that allows you to find producers and vineyards, zoom in and explore.