2016 Raveneau Montée de Tonerre

Saw a post about a wine bar in Nice a couple of months ago on this subreddit (Le Comptoir Des Freres) and thought I’d hunt it down on my current holiday. The entire list is really well priced, especially if you love Burgundy. I found the reds at more or less around the going market rate for the UK in terms of what you can source online, but some of the whites were well under.

Hence my choice, a 2016 Raveneau Montée de Tonerre at way below what I could hope to find at market price in the UK. I’ll start off by saying I’ve never tried Raveneau before, and I’m not sure it will be everyone’s typical Chablis, but I found it phenomenal.

Poured a hay colour and on the nose it was initially reserved, but had green apple and lemon rind at the forefront. After some time it opened up with some saline / iodine characteristics as well as a wonderful note of those roasted sweet almonds you get at Christmas markets.

The palate was an acidity bomb, and in the best way possible. Notes of green apple and citrus fruit on the nose were more than backed up in taste. It was balanced by sweetness like a mild honey and some honeydew melon. And then the finish was undeniably Chablis with a saline backbone that seemed to never go away – the length of finish on this really was special. Balanced is the key word for this wine though, and I would love to visit it again in 10 years time as it has the backbone for more bottle age to really thrive. That being said, it’s still absolutely delicious in its current state.

We ate it with some mixed cheese, charcuterie, a pate en croute and tartine. The Comte cheese really allowed this wine to shine for me (and maybe contributed to the toasted nuts feel) but all the food was superb and designed to allow the wines to be at the forefront.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend a visit to this wine bar in Nice, and if you want to try a bucket list producer that doesn’t disappoint, maybe pop open a bottle of Raveneau whilst you’re there. Cheers!