Corked!

August, 2014 disgorgement. Pale, frothy, dry, herbal, and lemony. Very crisp but perhaps not quite as austere as other bottlings I've had. Excellent.

Tasted next to the '05 Chapelot. Full yellow. Trademark Raveneau beeswax, honey, and spice. Less obvious Chablis salinity. Great feel and amplitude with lower acidity and minerality. For a moment, it gravitated toward the leaner, stonier profile of the Chapelot and displayed a whiff of citrus, but this tasting left no doubt that this is the broader wine. Grand Cru weight and texture if not precision, but as it has aged, it has proven its mettle and shown that it is not too flabby despite the rich vintage.

Slightly less deep than the Montée de Tonnerre tasted simultaneously. Immediately more sea breeze and orange than the more "Ravenesque" MdT. Make no mistake- a big, sappy Chablis, but it has a little more tension than that wine. Again, the wines came to a more common point with about an hour of air, but by the end of the bottle, the limestone was singing once again. Fascinating to see how differently this subplot showed, and I clearly preferred it to the Montée de Tonnerre.