The colour shows considerable age and the nose is mature but with much more underlying fruit than the tired bottle of 1990. A little bit nutty. The wine did freshen up a little in the glass, with some greengage fruit notes emerging, and a finely woven texture to round out the finish. This wine is fully ready for drinking but still gives considerable pleasure. Tasted Oct 2019.

Pale to mid amber with some oxidation on the nose. Perfectly drinkable but this bottle is not what this wine should be. Tasted Oct 2019.

Served in magnum which may have contributed to the 1993 Montée de Tonnerre being one of the wines of the night. Actually it is in the running for one of my Wines of the Year! The colour is pale, the bouquet is clear and finely chiselled, ready to enjoy from the start. The palate is absolutely sensational from the very start, with much more grip than the other vintages on show this evening. A hugely satisfying wine with enormous energy that stood up without suffering an iota when Jean-François Coche-Dury’s 1993 Corton-Charlemagne was placed next to it. Tasted Oct 2019.

In contrast to the 1997, the colour has remained full of life while still filling out nicely. There is an overlay of sulphur to the nose – this was still the relatively old-style production, and there is a certain richness of fruit that suggests there may have been some noble rot, which was a feature in Chablis in 1995. But it is now all wound together in a seamless whole. This is fully mature but holding up nicely, with an attractive salinity at the finish. A thoroughly interesting, fine, mature Chablis. Tasted Oct 2019.

A darkening amber colour makes one fear the worst but the nose still shows fruit and is less honeyed than I was expecting (fearing). There is still some recognisable Blanchot style here but the wine is not really delivering what one would like from a grand cru. Tasted Oct 2019.

This was one of the more intriguing wines of the tasting. Still quite pale in colour, with a first nose that was prettily honeyed – reminding me that Vincent Dauvissat noted that there was a fair amount of botrytis in his ‘95s. Waves of flavour dance across the palate with some useful acidity to maintain the balance. Not quite a classic but a wine that provides immense enjoyment. Tasted Oct 2019.

This now rarely seen vintage was a little bit advanced on the nose and indeed in colour. While there is good weight of fruit it is rather heavy in an atypical way for Raveneau. In fact it accompanied a quail dish quite nicely but this is not quite what the wine should be. Tasted Oct 2019.

Pale lemon in colour with an appetising nose when first poured, the sulphur which might have been prominent when the wine was young having bound the wine together. It also contributes to a little bit of a sweet and sour feel to the wine. The wine held together well enough in the glass but became less complex. Tasted Oct 2019.

This 1999 offers a fine bright colour, not too evolved for a twenty year old. Ripe fruit on the nose, even with some strawberry notes. It is delicious up front, though surprisingly soft and sweetly fruited at the finish. The sunshine shows through: I would like to have seen a fraction more grip at the finish. Tasted Oct 2019.

This 2000 Les Clos was another high point in a really great evening. Fine bright fresh pale lemon colour. A touch of sulphur was still apparent, but a minor coating on the undisputable majesty of the bouquet. Deeply pure white fruit, sitting on the limestone bench which for me underpins the taste of Les Clos, we returned to the absolute textbook quality first shown this evening by the 2002 Vaillons. There is very good acidity but only as a background to the quintessentially brilliant pure white fruit. Clos I am! Tasted Oct 2019.

Pale and very definitely interesting! Superbly poised, dancing white fruit and flowers hovering like butterflies on the palate. There is more weight on the palate than the otherwise equally fine 2002 vintage, and the fruit offers an intriguing mix of ripe lychees and saline notes. Altogether riveting and now reaching its prime. Tasted Oct 2019.

This bottle is showing some oxidation with a very honeyed nose. It does not feel like typical premature oxidation (there is not the tell-tale bruised apple aroma) but more a question of the cork failing. The wine underneath clearly has the expected weight off fruit, but this bottle cannot be rated. Tasted Oct 2019.

The clearest and palest colour of the five 2002s on show at this dinner. The first nose is fabulous, with a faint reductive character that is hiding the expected white flowers of Blanchot. This is a beautifully refined wine dancing on the tips of its toes. Really precise, fine-boned, not massively weighty but very persistent. Tasted Oct 2019.

Slightly the deepest colour of the three 1er Cru 2002s, the Montée de Tonnerre offers a considerable weight of fruit on the nose, notably juicy on the palate, sweetly ripe, the antithesis of the Vaillons. Later on however it had not kicked on and appeared to offer less concentration and grip than the Butteaux. Tasted Oct 2019.

I was a little disappointed by this at first, as the nose was subdued and the palate somewhat lacking in character, but it soon turned itself round and delivered. There was just a little lemony touch at first but the fruit grew steadily in the glass, and the wine which had seemed a fraction on the mature side at first freshened up admirably over two hour. This is a full-bodied style of Chablis compared to the austerity of the Vaillons. Drink from 2024-2027. Tasted Oct 2019.

There is just a little touch of colour but the nose is thrillingly youthful, insistent in its freshly chiselled marine limestone character. Textbook, Textbook, Textbook! Despite the classical austerity of the nose there is encouraging generosity of fruit beneath, and though the wine grows a little richer in the glass it never loses the underlying Chablis bone structure. Tasted Oct 2019.