Cellar Favorite: 1989 Domaine François Raveneau Chablis Butteaux 1er Cru

BY NEAL MARTIN | AUGUST 10, 2026

I don’t drink enough mature Chablis. I cannot resist temptation and, like many wine lovers, I crack the wines open young. Occasionally, a Chablis that has enjoyed a few orbits around the sun comes along and, sotto voce, it says, “You fool.” I savoured one such bottle recently at The Cocochine in Mayfair, which, if I may digress, is a restaurant that has improved immensely since I wrote it up as a Vinous Table soon after opening. My generous dinner companion invited a choice between two wines from Domaine François Raveneau: the 2012 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru or the 1989 Chablis Butteaux 1er Cru. As the saying goes, it was like choosing your favourite child. But I pointed to the latter because there is something authentic and unadorned about a mature Premier Cru Chablis. Maybe the Grand Cru would have been more flattering, but I wanted to take a chance with the 1989 because Chablis with such age, not least Raveneau, is a rare pleasure. As this Butteaux approaches four decades, its colour is commensurate with its age, a burnished amber hue with marginal turbidity. The nose comes straight to the point: Chablis. It could not come from anywhere else. Cooking apple, nettle tea, Conference pear and light fish scale scents open, displaying rusticity mixed with aloofness that I find captivating. The palate is cut from the same cloth — nothing flamboyant, unwilling to seduce the senses. This is a Chablis that says, “Take it or leave it.” Well, I will take it. There is brilliant tension from start to finish, not overly complex yet with outstanding length. This is mature Chablis firing on all cylinders without bells and whistles. Another two decades? No problem. 93/Drink 2026-2045.

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