Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac Léognan, 2020
Once again Olivier Bernard has produced the goods at Domaine de Chevalier with the 2011 Blanc a shining light in a line up of very good whites in Bordeaux in April. Wonderfully detailed, bright fruit on a nose alive with lime, white flowers and greengage. The palate displays all that is great in 2011; intense, long flavours of great purity and balance, salty nectarines, minerals, cool river stones, citrus and cut grass. Superb.
critic reviews
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc offers peaches and cream on the nose, quite opulent compared to its peers, yet it seems to gain more control and delineation with aeration. The oak appears to be well-integrated. The palate is well balanced but doesn't quite match the caliber of the aromatics, tapering slightly toward the finish. Does this have more to give? It’s very fine, if not the best that I believe Olivier Bernard has overseen. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
Another terrific vintage for this wine, the 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc unwinds in the glass with aromas of nectarine, pear, nutmeg, passionflower and hazelnuts. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and seamless, with racy acids and a bright, pure profile, it nips at the heels of the brilliant and somewhat racier, more refined 2019.
A blend of 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon, the 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc opens with very serious scents of preserved lemons, kumquat, cedar, and chalk dust, leading to a fantastically fun undercurrent of passion fruit, orange blossoms, and sea spray. The palate is so, so tightly wound with tight-knit citrus, tropical, and mineral notes wrapped up in a silken-textured, racy frame, finishing with epic length and a whole firework display of minerals. What a fascinating wine!