Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Rocking stuff, the truly brilliant 2012 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc offers fabulous notes of caramelized citrus, lemon curd and honeysuckle in a laser-focused, tight, gorgeously textured package. This beauty represents a good value in the market and is ideal for readers looking for top flight Bordeaux Blanc, as well as for those looking to understand this great terroir.
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James Suckling
This is very tender and pretty with very fine elements. Dried lemons, minerals and lilac as well as character of oyster shell and iodine. Full body, yet refined and long. You normally see this sort complex character in reds from Pessac-Leognan. Fascinating young white.
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Wine Enthusiast
93–95. Barrel sample. Complex, rounded and full bodied, this wine is still reticent at the moment, hiding its rich fruit. As it develops, this will be impressive, with it’s mineral texture over apricot fruits and layers of spice and wood. Barrel Sample.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A beautifully elegant and complex wine, with subtle notions of citrus, honeysuckle and tropical fruits, this medium-bodied, fresh, super-pure 2012 from Domaine de Chevalier should drink well for 30 or more years. The color is light straw with a greenish hue to it. Rating: 93+
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Wine Spectator
There's serious depth to the shortbread, lemon curd, creamed yellow apple and melon notes, all inlaid with mouthwatering savory and thyme flavors. The long, powerful finish has plenty of buried mouth-watering acidity. This should age well. Best from 2015 through 2020.
Sometimes light and crisp, other times rich and creamy, Bordeaux White Blends typically consist of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Often, a small amount of Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris is included for added intrigue. Popularized in Bordeaux, the blend is often mimicked throughout the New World. Somm Secret—Sauternes and Barsac are usually reserved for dessert, but they can be served before, during or after a meal. Try these sweet wines as an aperitif with jamón ibérico, oysters with a spicy mignonette or during dinner alongside hearty Alsatian sausage.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.