Winemaker Notes
Blend: 56% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 14% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a special Cheval-Blanc with blackcurrants, blueberries and hints of fresh herbs, tobacco and cedar. Full-bodied, very powerful and muscular with lots of tannins. The higher percentage of cabernet sauvignon (15% instead of 5%) makes it structured. Give it time to come together. Better after 2022.
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Decanter
A sense of forward motion here makes you smile - a reaction that's missing in many wines this year. The tannins push their way right through the palate, but cradle the cassis and bilberry fruit rather than smother it, helped by the fact that floral and smoky aromatics rise up. There's good persistency and you get that little kick and dance of minerality. The precision engineering is clear, but the overall feeling is simply of cohesion and enjoyment. 3.65ph. 100% new oak, but without a trace even now at this early stage. Approximately 60% of the wine this year came from the gravelly plots which were less affected by the frost, which accounts for a slightly higher level of Cabernet Sauvignon than usual. They used perhaps 1% of secondary budding in this blend (five weeks behind schedule at bud-break and then around 15 days by harvest) and kept picking from 15 September to 11 October - an extremely long schedule compared to most estates in 2017. With around 30% loss to frost, there will be 50,000 bottles of Cheval in 2017, compared to 116,000 in 2016. 21hl/ha yield this year, 75% destined for the grand vin.
Barrel Sample -
Jeb Dunnuck
While the blend is shifted more towards Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in 2017, the Chateau Cheval Blanc is nevertheless a beautiful wine in every sense and shows the hallmark elegance and complexity of this estate perfectly. Deep ruby/purple, with notes of ripe dark fruits, violets, rose petals, and spice, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, ripe yet integrated tannins, terrific mid-palate concentration, and a great, great finish. Based on 66% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, give this incredibly floral, seamless 2017 5-7 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following two decades.
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Wine Spectator
Singed tobacco leaf and savory aromas lead the way, giving this red a distinctive profile, while dark currant, fig and blackberry paste flavors form the core. Shows a loamy backdrop and a hint of cast iron throughout, with the fruit and savory elements keeping pace. Ends with prominent tannic grip. For the cellar. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2024 through 2042.
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Wine Enthusiast
With an unusually high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, this vintage presents a structured character. It is a straight wine, in line with dark tannins and black-currant fruits lightened by the jammy Merlot berry flavors. Drink this wine from 2024
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 52% Merlot and 48% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple 2017 Le Petit Cheval strides confidently out of the glass with notes of baked black cherries, blueberry preserves and warm plums plus wafts of tilled soil, chargrill and Marmite toast with a hint of cardamom. Medium-bodied, the palate is very tightly knit at this stage with lovely tension defining the earth-laced black fruits, finishing minerally with a bit of chew.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.