Château Cheval Blanc, St Emilion, 2023
The Cheval Blanc 2024 opens with quite a reserved bouquet initially. With air, notes of crème de mûre, followed by rich aromas of crème de cassis, sandalwood, mint, white pepper, stones, violets, and iris emerge. It presents a fascinating juxtaposition between pure, seductively textured griotte fruit, and something wilder with suggestions of dried flowers, herbs and garrigue. It is quite strict and shy, somewhat modest, yet unmistakably a very smart wine, with great depth to its mineral-inflected fruit. Taut and linear with a certain nervy tension to the mid-palate awash with notes of cranberry, crushed rocks, and graphite. This was a labour of love, extreme hard work and draconian selection (34% of the crop was sold as bulk wine), conveying monastic, cerebral qualities. As one would expect from Pierre-Olivier and team, the tannins are unimpeachable, contributing to an exquisite structure and a prolonged, saline finish. A superb Cheval Blanc that will reward patience.
critic reviews
The 2023 Cheval Blanc, which was bottled on June 8, the highest production due to the yield (39 hl/ha), a high percentage of vines in production and the selection of Petit Cheval. As usual, technical director Pierre-Olivier Clouet reminded me that there is no vin de presse. It has a delectable bouquet with exquisite delineation: blackberry, raspberry, crushed stone and very light pencil-box scents. Typical Cheval Blanc. The palate is medium-bodied with svelte tannins, wonderful balance and purity, silky smooth yet there is tangible grip and backbone. Just a judicious dab of cracked black pepper on the finish. One of the best Right Bank wines of the vintage. Effortless.
The 2023 Cheval Blanc, accounting for 75% of this year's crop, is deep garnet-purple in color. After a little swirling, the nose erupts with an atomic perfume of Morello cherries, wild blueberries, black raspberries, and ripe plums leading to a fragrant undercurrent of rosebud tea, menthol, star anise, and cinnamon stick. The medium-bodied palate is fantastically fresh and graceful, delivering super-fine-grained tannins and just enough tension to support the red, black, and blue fruit layers, finishing on a lingering mineral note. This is magnificent. The blend is 52% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, with pH 3.80.
One of the most profound wines of the vintage is the 2023 Chateau Cheval Blanc, a striking wine that stands out for its strong sense of identity and seamless integration at such an early stage in its life. Wafting from the glass with notes of mulberries, lilac, dark fruits, iris root and violets, it's medium to full-bodied, supple and seamless, with a gourmand core of cool, vibrant fruit that entirely conceals its sweet structuring tannins, concluding with a long, perfumed finish. It's a blend of 52% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, drawing on fully 46 of the blocks that make up Cheval Blanc, and it attained 13.8% alcohol.