Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Grand Cru Classé, 2021
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier opens with a beautiful bouquet of salty minerals, purple fruits, griotte, raspberry and a hint of tobacco smoke. Packed with hedgerow fruit on the palate, there’s quite a bit of extract here, lots of dark earthy fruit and cool berries. The fruit is robust, but there is a crispness and a certain refinement to the fruit laced tannins that grip the mouth with a salty intensity. As this opens in the glass, more floral notes start to emerge. Authentic, enjoyable and should have a good future ahead. 10% Merlot, 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot.
critic reviews
A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, the 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge has a medium to deep garnet-purple color. It needs some patient swirling and shaking to wake up notes of crushed blackcurrants, kirsch, and juicy plums, followed by nuances of violets, mossy tree bark, and wild sage. The medium-bodied palate has a wonderfully fine-grained texture and great tension supporting the tightly wound red and black fruit layers, finishing long and perfumed.
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier has a beautifully defined bouquet with blackberry, pencil box and light oyster shell scents that gradually unfurl in the glass. This is unashamedly classic in style but not old-fashioned. The palate is very well defined with a taut line of acidity, very fresh and focused, revealing just a dab of black pepper and clove toward the finish. This is a succinctly styled Domaine de Chevalier that will age gracefully in bottle.
You can relax with Domaine de Chevalier in difficult vintages, and it is one of the few successes across both colours in 2021. The aromatics are a little closed, but the flavour and texture on the palate is immediately gripping. Slate, wet stones, controlled delivery of citrus, cold ash, gunsmoke, white peach, apple. Stretches out through the palate and is one of the wines of the vintage. Owner Olivier Bernard.
The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier reveals a deep, complex bouquet with aromas of blackberries and blueberries mingled with spices, cigar wrapper and coniferous forest floor, followed by a medium to full-bodied, sweet and concentrated palate animated by bright acids and framed by fine, powdery tannins. It's an impressive effort that will reward a bit of bottle age. It's a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc.