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| "... Don't even try to compare it to Pessac-Léognan. This has its own gorgeous expression of these grapes, defying regional tradition .... [A] white that is at once without peers, but is also quintessentially Cheval Blanc."
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
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| | | | "Cheval Blanc’s co-owners, luxury goods group LVMH and Albert Frère, bought the vines in 2006 after Château La Tour du Pin Figeac lost its classified ranking in Saint-Émilion.
Experiments with white wine on a small area began in 2008. The Cheval Blanc team field-grafted three different clones of Sauvignon Blanc. In the most recent 2012 Saint-Émilion reclassification, 1.38 hectares of the vineyard was redrawn to be included within the footprint of Château Cheval Blanc itself. That left 6.5 hectares for the white wine plan. Cheval Blanc re-planted some parts of the vineyard and field-grafted others, giving some plants up to 40 years of age in terms of their rootstock. The vineyard is 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon. The estate plans to add Sémillon to the wine from the 2018 vintage. ‘We spent several years understanding what the terroir would give us and testing everything from clones to yeast strains for the vinification,’ Cheval Blanc technical director Pierre-Olivier Clouet told Decanter. ‘It is very important to us that this is a classical Bordeaux white, tasting more of our terroir than any overtly varietal flavours.'"
Jane Anson, Decanter
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| | "One of Bordeaux's most complex terroirs, Cheval Blanc sits on the site of an ancient river delta, with (to generalize) clay-rich soils in the lower-lying parts where rivulets once flowed and gravel and sand elsewhere.
This complexity is reflected, of course, in the resulting wine but also in how it is farmed and made, with thoughtful use of cover crops according to soil type and parcel-by-parcel vinification. A concerted effort is being made, moreover, to bring life to the vineyard, with hedges of native species to act as wildlife corridors and fruit trees planted among the vines. The same attention to detail that's applied in the vineyards, for example with regard to developing and testing an in-house massal selection, is applied in the cellar, where cooperage trials are notable for their exigence. All of this shows in the glass."
William Kelley, Wine Advocate |
| | | 80% aged in foudres and 20% in demi-muids; 83% Sauvignon Blanc and 17% Sémillon
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| "The 2021 Château Cheval Blanc Petit Cheval Blanc is gorgeous and comes from a parcel just to the west of the château. A blend of 83% Sauvignon and 17% Sémillon brought up in 50% new wood, it has a killer nose of crushed citrus, orange blossom, and chalky minerality to go with a medium-bodied, vibrant, racy, yet beautifully concentrated and textured style on the palate. I love its overall balance, it has remarkable purity, and I suspect it will provide over a decade of prime drinking."
95
Jeb Dunnuck |
| "The 2021 Le Petit Cheval (Blanc) is fabulous. Silky and intensely aromatic, with tons of Sauvignon Blanc character, the 2021 is all raciness. Pear, slate, mint, crushed rocks, lime and white pepper abound, all framed by brisk acids and gorgeous saline undertones .... It aged for 22 months, mostly in foudres and wood uprights. What a wine."
94
Antonio Galloni, Vinous |
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• Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
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Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
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