Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A tight and powerful wine with a precise and structured texture. Restrained, steely and racy. Goes on for minutes. So much intensity. A bright and shining white. Stunning balance. Alcohol 13.5%. A blend of 70% sauvignon blanc and 30% semillon.
Barrel Sample: 98-99 -
Vinous
The 2025 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc gets my vote for the white wine of the vintage. Rich and powerful in the glass, but also beautifully vibrant, the 2025 dazzles from start to finish. Lemon confit, pear, slate, mint, white flowers and tangerine peel are some of the many aromas and flavors that develop over time. The 2025 is quite simply stunning. Don’t miss it! –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 97-99 -
Decanter
The cooler microclimate at this estate favours hot and dry weather, and this proved no exception in 2025. I tasted this wine no less than five times at different locations (négociant Joanne, CVGB, Pessac–Léognan group tasting, at the estate, too), always enjoying the exciting combination of freshness and white stone fruit fleshiness expressed in a suave palate texture with nuance and refinement, evoking Meursault–like depth and opulence. 'We picked later, including after the rains of late August, to get more breadth in the palate,' remarked owner Olivier Bernard. That – and a long finish. A great success!
Barrel Sample: 97 -
Jeb Dunnuck
A terrific, serious white from this reference point estate outside of Léognan, the 2025 Domaine De Chevalier Blanc reveals orchard fruits, spice, and crushed stone on the nose. It's rich and medium to full-bodied on the palate, with nicely integrated acidity, ample mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It's going to need just a few years of bottle age to come together.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Domaine de Chevalier 2025 Blanc reveals an expressive bouquet of white fruits—pear and white peach—alongside floral notes. Medium- to full-bodied, it’s dense yet remarkably fresh and precise, with a crystalline, ethereal profile. Both aromatic and concentrated, it combines depth with clarity, concluding with a long, ethereal and perfumed finish. Once again, this is a fine success and surely one of the most precise white wines produced in Bordeaux this year.
Barrel Sample: 93-95
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.