Chateau Cheval Blanc Le Petit Cheval Bordeaux Blanc 2014

Professional Ratings

• 93 Decanter
  Aged for the same time as the red wine; so approaching two years, but entirely in large-sized 400 litre barrels from Austria and Sancerre, this has a clear salinity to both the aromatics and the palate, coupled with a lovely rich weight on the palate. More intensity of flavour than many white Bordeaux, you certainly know that you are tasting a wine with ambition. Great first vintage with clean citrus flavours and an excellent retraction on the close of palate that gives the impression of minerality and freshness. Let’s hope Bordeaux has room for another icon white, as this is very much worth trying.
• 93 James Suckling
  Very firm and fresh with blueberry, blackberry and chocolate. Full body, firm tannins. This is long and deep. A very beautiful second wine.
• 92 Wine Spectator
  This has a lovely feel, with a light shortbread frame around a core of white peach, honeysuckle and quinine notes, and shows both blanched almond and thyme flavors through the finish. Has an intriguing combination of weight and zip and really stretches out nicely in the glass. Sauvignon Blanc. Drink now through 2020.
• 91 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2014 Le Petit Cheval Blanc, the first release to be commercialized, has a crisp and well-defined bouquet with scents of linden, yellow flowers and citrus fruit. Certainly there are no pyrazine elements here that Pierre-Olivier Clouet told me that he wanted to avoid. The palate is taut and linear, the acidity noticeable, conveying a light marine influence towards the finish with lip-smacking salinity on the aftertaste. It is a neutral style of Bordeaux Blanc that deftly disguises the oak. It is an impressive wine, though I wager that it will be even more so once the Sémillon comes on board in 2018.