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65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot A lovely effortless style, the wild fruit and summer pudding flavours immediately catch your attention, with a touch of baked earth and cinnamon spice. This wine has a flow and rhythm to it. Harmonious and lacy, juicy and fresh, the combination of red and dark fruit reflects a fine purity. The tannins are nimble, giving power and length on the finish.
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot A lovely effortless style, the wild fruit and summer pudding flavours immediately catch your attention, with a touch of baked earth and cinnamon spice. This wine has a flow and rhythm to it. Harmonious and lacy, juicy and fresh, the combination of red and dark fruit reflects a fine purity. The tannins are nimble, giving power and length on the finish.
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier has a concentrated, well-defined bouquet with blackberry, raspberry, tobacco, hickory and wild hedgerow. Touches of pressed iris flower surface with aeration. Generous, yet it maintains ample delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, white pepper and touches of tobacco, very fine depth, focused and perhaps a little more muscular than other vintages with a sapid finish that is surprising given the growing season. Superb. Drink 2026-2058
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier, which was cropped at 38hl/ha, is deep purple with glints of blue. The bouquet is very clean, precise and focused, not dissimilar to the impressive Malartic Lagravière that I tasted alongside, touches of wet granite and truffle emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins. This Domaine de Chevalier has a deeply impressive structure counterbalanced by equally impressive freshness and elegance, fanning out wonderfully on the finish, which is very persistent. Just a shade off the outstanding 2019... perhaps. Drink 2026 - 2058
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier is brilliant. Bright, poised and wonderfully pure, the 2020 Domaine de Chevalier marries the radiance of the year with tremendous freshness. Red cherry fruit, blood orange, mint, star anise and cinnamon all meld together. The 2020 is a wine built on aromatic presence and persistence, more so than heft, with all the elements very nicely balanced. What a wine! Tasted two times. Drink 2030-2060
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier is going to need a number of years to unwind. Rich, heady and super-concentrated, the 2020 is so impressive, right out of the gate. Crushed rocks, rose petal, cedar, pomegranate and mint all build as the 2020 shows off its vibrant, layered personality. Domaine de Chevalier remains one of the most under the radar wines in all of Bordeaux. The 2020 is an absolutely brilliant effort from Olivier Bernard and his team. Tasted two times. Drink 2035 - 2055
Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Domaine de Chevalier comes skipping out of the glass with energetic scents of ripe red and black currants, fresh blackberries and boysenberries, plus nuances of wild sage, cloves and cedar with a waft of lavender. The medium to full-bodied palate surprises and delights with an unexpected richness and depth that remains locked away on the nose, revealing layers of fragrant earth and floral notions framed by fantastic freshness and firm, finely grained tannins, finishing with the most gorgeous, long-lingering perfume. Drink 2026-2053
Iron, black mushroom and dark berry with some burnt orange peel. Flowers, too. It’s full-bodied with round tannins that turn linear and tight at the end. Excellent energy. Brightness and purity.
Concentrated ruby red colour, a little subdued on the nose, built with structure and power, concentrated and should age well. Classical, powerful, not exuberant, an impressive Chevalier that has tannins and fruit and freshness, nothing shouting too loud. As it opens, you see a peony floral edge that is very attractive. Easily among the best in Pessac. A yield of 38hl/ha. Drink 2027-2042
There is a lot of attack here and the tannin and oak seem balanced, but my main problem is that the fruit is a little too drying and a fraction under-ripe. This means that the acidity is sour and hard and it rather spoils the finish. I am not sure how this will resolve itself and so I have awarded a cautious score. I would love to be proved wrong here.
Delicately perfumed and smoky, even slightly ethereal. Juicy and long with medium-bodied weight. Compact but refined tannins offer a firm structure. Dry and very Graves. Slightly chewy finish. (JL) Drink 2027 – 2040
Dark in color, the wine pops with notes of Cuban cigars, smoke, black currants, flowers, blackberries, forest leaf and an intriguing hint of orange rind at the end of the nose. Full-bodied, plush, polished and well-defined, every layer offers nuance with silk and velvet textures. There is lift, energy, volume and depth on the palate, finishing with waves of dark red currants, creme de cassis, tobacco leaf, blackberry, savory herbs and a gentle wisp of spearmint on the backend. It is going to be quite a treat comparing 2018, 2019 and 2020 over the years. I am certain this will age and evolve for at least 3 decades or more from here. The wine blends 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 3 % Cabernet Franc 13.7% ABV.
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
