Château Cheval-Blanc 2015, St-Émilion

‘A profound wine in the making, it will rank with the great wines of the past.’
Neal Martin

What a wine Cheval-Blanc is! The very mention of this wines name is enough to set the pulse racing. It is an aspirational wine that scales heights aspired to by many but attained by only a few. For those who are lucky enough to have tried it the beauty and relative accessibility in youth is almost startling. Given the opportunity that appropriate aging affords it transforms into one of the very finest wines one can imagine. Located directly next to the Pomerol plateau the property somehow merges the best of both appellations.

The petite, concentrated berries cultivated here yield not just depth and intensity but tension and nuance too. Jancis Robinson sums up the 2015 perfectly by proclaiming that it is ‘very dramatic without being at all exaggerated’. Her score of 18.5+ topped her ranking of St-Émilion. Its score from Neal Martin aligns it with the perfect scoring 2010 and 2005 as well as the 99 point 2009. The exceptional 2015 has risen to the top of an already incredible showing from the high performing right bank communes. Its voluptuous texture, endlessly nuanced bouquet and remarkable flavour are haunting in their impact.

Château Cheval-Blanc 2015, St-Émilion
£5,200 Per 12 Bottles En Primeur
£2,600 Per 6 Bottles En Primeur

It has a very complex bouquet, subtle and tightly wound, very precise with dark berry fruit, hints of graphite, minerals and a hint of black pepper, perhaps a little spicier than recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with extraordinarily fine tannin. Beautifully balanced, perfectly controlled, this Cheval Blanc gently builds in the mouth, but remains strict and precise. The Cabernet Franc here is very expressive (though apparently the Merlot was showier prior to malolactic). This is an intellectual Cheval Blanc, thoroughly enjoyable, but it will need 10-12 years to really show its pedigree. A profound wine in the making, it will rank with the great wines of the past.
Drink 2025 – 2065
97-99/100, Neal Martin

A wine of total finesse, the 2015 Cheval Blanc speaks to understatement above all else. Sweet floral notes meld into a core of bright red stone fruits and mint. Silky, nuanced and wonderfully persistent on the palate, the 2015 possesses remarkable depth, but in an understated fashion. There is plenty of tannin buried beneath the fruit. The 2015 is not an obvious Cheval Blanc, but rather a sublime wine that will only start to blossom with a decade plus in bottle. It will drink well for decades beyond that.
95-97/100, Antonio Galloni