Winery
Domaine François Raveneau
About Domaine François Raveneau
The most sublime and the most celebrated estate of Chablis, the wines of Domaine Raveneau are a rare find—exceptional because the vineyard holdings are almost entirely made of grand cru and premier cru fruit, painfully finite as so few are produced, outstanding because of their tremendous quality and consistency, and unusual given the modesty of the vignerons who create these world-class wines.
Third-generation cousins, Isabelle and Maxime Raveneau are at the helm today with their recently-retired fathers, brothers Bernard and Jean-Marie, supporting by keeping their hands in across the vineyards and cellar. Prior to retirement, the brothers built on founder and father François Raveneau’s implementation of age-old traditional vineyard and winery techniques before passing the baton to their children.
The story of Domaine François Raveneau has its roots in the post-WWII years. Each from wine grower families, in 1948, François Raveneau and his wife Andrée Dauvissat (of the fellow famed Chablis house) merged their vineyard holdings to establish the house. While his father had systematically sold off prime plots over the years, when François took over, he was determined to acquire the best parcels for the domaine.
Throughout the decades from the late 1940s, this is exactly what he did, building a portfolio that represents some of the finest vineyards in Chablis. This activity coincided with a mass exodus from the region following the war, leaving François able to buy up prime parcels during the decades that followed. Another pivotal move by François was implemented soon after he and Andrée combined their holdings: He became the first in his family to make and bottle wine from his harvests, which, prior, had been sold to other producers and grape merchants.
Initially, François undertook viticulture and winemaking in a wider framework of “mixed farming”. This is the practice of combining crops with livestock farming and was typical among wine producers in Chablis to hedge against harsh climates and unpredictable harvests. However, during the 1960s and 70s technical advancements in the vineyards like methods for protection against spring frosts contributed to an explosion of viticultural development. At this time, François made the decision to dedicate himself entirely to viticulture.
Raveneau Family Succession
In 1978, son Jean-Marie completed his studies at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune and joined his father at the domaine. He was followed in 1995 by brother Bernard when he left a career as a Burgundian wine négociant to devote himself to the family business around the time of his father’s retirement. The third-generation Raveneaux have now joined the affair with Bernard’s daughter Isabelle starting work alongside her father in 2010 and Jean-Marie’s son Maxime joining in 2017. Isabelle’s role in the operation has grown steadily marking a departure from her grandfather’s attitude that women did not belong in vineyards or winemaking!
Domaine François Raveneau works to the adage “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. Fundamentally, little has changed in vineyard and winery approaches since François started to concentrate his efforts on winemaking in the 1970s, and the estate’s finessed, complex, terroir-expressive, and in-demand wines are a testament to this.
“The secret is that there is no secret. It starts in the vineyard and then it’s just hard work.”
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.
Where in the World is Domaine François Raveneau?
Domaine François Raveneau is based in Chablis, Burgundy, France.
