Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Grand Cru Classé, 2020
Olivier Bernard describes 2020 as the “most powerful vintage” ever recorded at Domaine de Chevalier. It started early and finished early and due to the droughts in July and September, they harvested berries with very thick skins and little juice. The UGC sample was very lovely and ranked as one of the best wines on show, but we just yearned for a bit more intensity on the mid-palate, so we requested a fresh bottle, and boy was it good. Fragrant with cool leafy blackcurrant fruit, nice delineation, pencil lead, crushed stones, a tang of black raspberry, cracked spices, clay and heather. On the palate this has a cool ripeness, mid-weight flavours of mulberry and blackberry, seriously refined and intense fruit laced with cool mineral notes. As one would expect the attack is elegant and precise with good freshness and lift, packed with savoury cassis, sweet black cherry and layers of bramble and briar; there’s a gravelly exoticism to the dark core of fruit, complex and seductive. This harnesses the natural power and concentration of the vintage in such an effortless and refined way. There’s no sense of weight or warmth – it glides across the palate with verve and precision. The velvety tannins and supple laced with a salty, mineral complexity. Glorious.
critic reviews
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier has a refined and understated nose, well-defined with blackberry, briar, gravel and earth. Sensual in style, it gradually unfurls in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins and a little creaminess toward the back end, but there is still decent structure here. Give this four to five years in bottle—the class shines through. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier is a touch more tightly wound than the brilliant 2019 out of the gates, but it seems likely to equal that vintage with a bit of time. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of minty blackberries and cassis mingled with notions of burning embers, spices, rose petals and orange rind, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit, powdery structuring tannins and a long, saline finish. As I wrote last year, this estate in recent vintages has arrived at a sort of stylistic contemporary classicism that evokes the great wines of yesteryear from this address, and the 2020 continues that trend.
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out of the gate with pronounced notes of blackcurrant cordial, juicy blackberries, and mossy tree bark, giving way to notes of licorice, crushed rocks, and pencil lead. The medium to full-bodied palate is taut with muscular black fruits and mineral accents, framed by firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness, finishing long and perfumed.
Exactly as you hope to find a great Bordeaux at this stage, still very much firm in its tannic structure, rippled with clear cinammon, turmeric and black pepper notes alongside creamy cassis, blackberry, bilberry, cigar box, smoked earth. A brilliant Chevalier. 38hl/h yield.