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Highlighting the great success of the white wines from Bordeaux in 2021, this is a beauty. 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon, it combines a bright racy freshness of fresh citrus fruits and crushed blackcurrant leaves with creamy lanolin breadth from the Semillon. Hints of apricot on the finish, before a zip of freshness lifts all the flavours to give depth and nuance. Lovely.
Highlighting the great success of the white wines from Bordeaux in 2021, this is a beauty. 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon, it combines a bright racy freshness of fresh citrus fruits and crushed blackcurrant leaves with creamy lanolin breadth from the Semillon. Hints of apricot on the finish, before a zip of freshness lifts all the flavours to give depth and nuance. Lovely.
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, picked September 13–23 at 40hL/ha, has a captivating, complex bouquet of yellow flowers, white peach, wet limestone and just a faint hint of elderflower in the background. The taut palate is well-balanced with a superb line of acidity. Conveying tangible energy from start to finish, this builds in the mouth toward a persistent finish that fans out gloriously. One of the best Domaine de Chevalier whites that I have tasted in 20-plus years. Drink 2026-2055
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc has quite a bit of textural depth and resonance, but at the same time, I feel the energy level here is a bit low. Lemon confit, almond, sage, chamomile and white flowers caress the palate. I like the depth, but wish there was more vibrancy. Drink 2029-2041
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc is shaping up brilliantly, bursting with aromas of citrus oil, gooseberries, crisp stone fruit, white flowers and pastry cream. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, it's a concentrated, textural wine that displays terrific cut and tension, allying racy acidity with chalky, structuring dry extract.
It is a double success for DDC in 2021, following the excellence of the red wine. This white is rich, splendidly long and keen, and it has all the hallmarks of a long-lived beauty. The fruit is not too rushed or full. Quite the opposite, it is refined, firm and determined. This is a classic, and it will sit near the top of the dry white wine ladder this year.
White flowers, honeysuckle, lemon rind, pineapple, spice and vanilla aromatics motivate you to want to know more. On the palate, the wine is perfectly balanced between its lush, creamy character and blazing acidity. The fruit shows a gorgeous purity and the seamless finish builds, expands lingers. Clearly, this is a contender for one of the best, if not the best vintage of Domaine de Chevalier Blanc ever produced! Drink this young for its youthful exuberance, or age it for more secondary development. The wine blends 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon, 13.5% ABV. The harvest took place September 13-September 24. Drink from 2023-2050.
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.
