Chateau Cheval Blanc Vertical Tasting on Las Olas

"When it came to writing about wine, I did what almost everybody does - faked it"  - Art Buchwald

There are a lot of fakers out there that is why we do events like this one to get firsthand experience on how great wines from great vintages are drinking today.  This tasting just popped on to the calendar a few weeks ago and it is already pretty much sold out. 

So… why are we sending this e-mail out?  We have a few bottles of the 1982 Cheval Blanc to sell!!

And we have our review for the Super Kobrand Italian Tasting at the end of this e-mail so at least you have some good reading material if you can’t make it to the Cheval Blanc tasting.

Cheval Blanc Tasting at Aqua Vita

1800 Las Olas Boulevard

Friday, June 27th

7:00pm

Tasting Line-Up:

1982 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

Price: $1275.00    Your Price: $1083.75

(96 Points) All in harmony. Deserves its reputation. Dark ruby. Smoke, black truffle, berry and cherry. Full-bodied, velvety and fine.--Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2005. “JS Wine Spectator Issue: Jun 30, 2001

1985 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

This vintage is all about balance, smooth and silky on the tongue with a velvety texture with an array of coffee, mint, tobacco and incredible balanced with a long finish with ripe fat fruit and good freshness at the end, echoing all the nuance from the nose through the finish.  I love the way 1985 is showing right now and will acquire as much of this as I can as it came in second place with 9 votes.  This wine was not as good as the 1982 on the second day.  Finish 45+              Most Excellent +

1988 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

(93 Points)  Berry, cherry and chocolate on the nose, with hints of spices. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a spicy, cedary, dark chocolate aftertaste. Very silky and caressing. Grabs your attention. Muscular for Cheval. Overlooked by many Cheval fans.—'88/'98 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2008). Drink now. 12,000 cases made. –JS  Wine Spectator Issue: Web Only - 2009

1995 Le Petite Cheval St. Emilion

1996 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

(90 Points) The elegant, moderately weighted 1996 Cheval Blanc reveals a deep garnet/plum, evolved color. Quintessentially elegant, with a complex nose of black fruits, coconut, smoke, and pain grille, this medium-bodied wine exhibits sweet fruit on the attack, substantial complexity, and a lush, velvety-textured finish. It is very soft and evolved for a 1996. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2015.  Wine Advocate #122, Apr 1999

1998 Le Petit Cheval St. Emilion  

Price: $270.00    Your Price: $229.50 Quantity in Stock: 3

1998 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

(96+ Points) I seriously underestimated this wine, as I have often tended to do with Cheval Blanc. A potentially immortal example that has gained significant weight since it has been bottled, this blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot has a saturated purple color and a glorious nose of menthol, plums, mulberries, new saddle leather, cocoa, and vanilla. Remarkably fuller-bodied than I ever remembered it young, with an amazingly seamless texture and tremendous concentration and extract, this full-bodied yet gorgeously pure and elegant wine is impeccably balanced and certainly one of the all-time great Cheval Blancs. If it continues to improve as much as it has over the last three years since bottling, this wine will certainly rival the 2000, 1990, and 1982. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2030. Last tasted, 1/03.  Bordeaux Book, 4th Edition, Jan 2003

1999 Le Petit Cheval St. Emilion

1999 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

(93 Points) The complex, explosively fragrant 1999 Cheval Blanc is a blend of 59% Merlot and 41% Cabernet Franc. It is already showing well, which is a good sign for a wine that traditionally is reserved early in life, but puts on weight and richness in the bottle. Stylistically, this wine is probably cut from the same mold as vintages such as 1985, 1966, and 1962. The color is a dense ruby with purple nuances. Once past the blockbuster bouquet of menthol, leather, black fruits, licorice, and mocha, the wine reveals medium body, extraordinary elegance, purity, and sweet, harmonious flavors with no hard edges. This is a seamless beauty of finesse, charm, and concentration. The 1999 is an exciting Cheval Blanc to drink relatively young. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2022.  Wine Advocate #140, Apr 2002

2000 Le Petit Cheval St. Emilion

2000 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

(99 Points) Coming out of a relatively dormant state, this 2000 is a spectacular Cheval Blanc. Of recent vintages, I think only the 2009 can give it a run for its money. A blend of 53% Merlot and 47% Cabernet Franc, the wine has a sweet nose of menthol, melted licorice, boysenberry, blueberry, and cassis. A broad wine with compelling purity, a layered texture, and sweet tannin, with hints of coffee and earth in the background, this is by far the best Cheval Blanc since 1990 and before 2009. It is a legend in the making and can actually be drunk now, as the tannins have nearly melted away. This is a beauty with incredibly complex aromatics. Drink it over the next 25-30 years.   Wine Advocate #189, Jun 2010

Menu:

Appetizers

Foie Gras SushiDuck Confit Spring RollsTuna and Salmon Tar Tar Mix Master

Salad Course

Grilled Portobello garnished with Parmesan Crisps and fresh herb vinaigrette

Dinner Course

Beef Shortrib with Dark chocolate Bordeaux demi Glaze Shoe String Fried Potatoes covered with lemon zest gremolata

Dessert

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee served in a pecan lace cookie dish with fresh berries and coconut rum caramel sauce

The fee for this tasting is $395 Per Person + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

A bit about Chateau Cheval Blanc

If you were to ask any wine lover what the finest Saint-Emilion is today, he would be most likely to reply Cheval Blanc.  This was not always the case.  Once Château Ausone enjoyed a greater reputation, while Château Figeac was once considered the best wine among the properties of the Saint-Emilion Graves.  Cheval Blanc's reputation in England was certainly made by the 1921 vintage, and from that time onwards it was spoken of in the same terms as the first growths of the 1855 Classification.  However, it did not achieve equality of price with those wines until after the Second World War.  When the first official classification of Saint-Emilion was made by the INAO in 1955, Cheval Blanc and Ausone were set apart by themselves among the dozen Premiers Grands Crus of Saint-Emilion.

The property once formed part of Figeac until the nineteenth century - the Cheval Blanc portion was sold in 1852.  It has since been owned for many generations by the Fourcaud-Laussac family, who have made it more famous than the property from which it sprang.  The heiress of the family married Jacques Hébrard, the towering and obsessed administrator who brought Cheval Blanc to new heights in the 1980's.  Following Hébrard in 1989, Bernard Grandchamp was brought in to run the estate.  However, Grandchamp resigned his position a year later, fueling speculation of family in-fighting about the future of Cheval Blanc.  The château itself is a modest but charming house with small turrets and pleasing proportions which, together with its white palette, give the appearance of a summer villa.  But this is now completely overshadowed by the palatial new chai which more truly reflects the present prestige of Cheval Blanc.  For many years the wines had to be moved (during the second year in cask) to a cellar in Libourne where the bottling was allowed to take place -the former chai at Cheval Blanc was simply too small to accommodate all the wine.

On the open plateau of the Graves Saint-Emilion, the properties tend to be larger than those that crowd the cramped hillsides around the ramparts of Saint-Emilion, and Cheval Blanc is no exception to this.  The large vineyard of 82 acres produces as much as 14,000 cases annually.  It is one of the curiosities of Cheval Blanc that the soil and sub-soil contain almost every variation to be found in the region; and this, no doubt, contributes to the unique style of the wine.  With Figeac, Cheval Blanc has the lion's share of the gravelly outcrops that give this district its name.  In addition, a proportion of ungrafted vines have been maintained in the vineyard, and the proprietors believe this to be an important factor in preserving quality.

Cheval Blanc is undoubtedly one of Bordeaux's greatest and unique wines.  For most of this century it has sat alone at the top of Saint-Emilion's hierarchy - representing the finest wine this appellation can produce.  (This situation has been altered slightly by the renaissance began at nearby Château Ausone in the mid 1970's - now Cheval Blanc has had to share the limelight.)  Sitting on the Pomerol border in the Saint-Emilion Graves sector with only a ditch separating its vineyards from those of the great Pomerol châteaux of L'Evangile and La Conseillante, Cheval Blanc has often been characterized as making a wine that is as much a Pomerol as it is a Saint-Emilion.  The distinctive choice of grape varieties used at Cheval Blanc, two-thirds Cabernet Franc and one-third Merlot, with a tiny parcel of old vines of Malbec, is highly unusual.  No other major chateau uses this much Cabernet Franc.  Cabernet Franc reaches its zenith in Cheval Blanc's gravelly, sandy, and clay soil that is underpinned by a bed of iron rock, producing an extremely rich, ripe, intense, viscous wine. 

Among the "Big Eight" of Bordeaux, Cheval Blanc probably has the broadest window of drinkability.  It is usually delicious when first bottled, and yet it has the ability in the top years to last and last.  None of the Médoc first-growths nor Haut-Brion, Ausone, or Pétrus can claim to have such flexibility.  According to Robert Parker, the world's foremost authority on Bordeaux wines, "only Haut-Brion comes closest to matching Cheval Blanc's early drinkability and precociousness along with the stuffing and overall balance and intensity to age for 20-30 years."  The style of wine produced at Cheval Blanc has no doubt contributed to its immense popularity.  Parker describes it thusly: "Dark ruby in color in the very good vintages, it is an opulently rich and fruity wine, full bodied, voluptuous, lush, and deceptively easy to drink when young.  The bouquet is especially distinctive.  At its best, Cheval Blanc is an even more fragrant wine than Margaux.  Scents of minerals, menthol, exotic spices, tobacco, and intense, as well as superripe, black fruits can overwhelm the taster.  Many tasters, fooled by its cunning show of precocious charm, falsely assume that it will not age well.  In the big, rich vintages, Cheval Blanc evolves exceptionally well...Cheval Blanc can produce a decadently exotic wine of unbelievable depth and richness."  David Peppercorn, one of England's foremost authorities on Bordeaux, has written: "It is indeed a stunning wine, not subtle, but winning admiration with its sheer beauty and animal vigor; it assails the palate in the way some of the French Impressionists assail the eye with the brilliance of their colors.  It is a quality only matched in Bordeaux by Pétrus."

The great age of Cheval Blanc came after the war.  It began badly, because half the 1945 crop, already much reduced in size, had to be pasteurized, due to volatile acidity.  But then came a wonderful run of vintages: 1947, one of the most celebrated Bordeaux made since the war, soon commanded record prices because everyone wanted to have it in their cellars.  To this day, the 1947 remains the greatest Bordeaux we have ever drunk - it has been very impressive on two recent occasions (once in 1993 and again in 1994). The 1948, overshadowed by its immediate predecessor, was robust and fine; 1949 was only a little behind the 1947, a great wine instead of a masterpiece. In a once in a lifetime vertical tasting of Cheval Blanc conducted in 1994 by the Hollywood Wine Society in Miami, Florida, we had an opportunity to sample 15 top vintages of Cheval Blanc from 1947 to 1990.  We were awestruck by the amazing 1950 (an unheralded vintage) and the awesome 1955 - both were fat, rich, and concentrated with plenty of life still ahead of them.  The 1964 and 1966 were also very impressive. Cheval Blanc was not a strong performer during the seventies - the 1970 and 1975 were disappointments considering the reputation of the vintage.  However, with the increasing attention to quality and detail provided by administrator Jacques Hébrard, the quality of this wine - beginning with the 1979 vintage - became more consistent.  Some critics feel that the three consecutive vintages of the early eighties - 1981, 1982, and 1983 - were the finest Cheval Blanc trilogy since the splendid wines of 1947, 1948, and 1949.  Recent vintages - 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2010 are all outstanding.  

Chateau Cheval Blanc Available:

2011 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

Price: $1253.00  Sale $1102.64

(95 Points) The 2011 Cheval Blanc is one of the more plump, opulent and sexy Cheval Blancs made over recent vintages, and its forwardness, lusciousness and complexity seemingly suggest this wine is on a fast evolutionary track. The wine exhibits a dense ruby/purple/plum color, a medium to full-bodied opulence, a sumptuous mid-palate (atypical for the vintage), and a lush, heady finish. It is a super, complex, evolved Cheval Blanc that can be drunk now or cellared for 15+ years. Bravo!

2008 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

Price: $792.50    Sale $697.40       Case $8084

(93 Points) The 2008 Cheval Blanc (55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Franc) is a winner from this underrated, classic vintage. Notes of forest floor, Asian plum sauce, black currants, sweet cherries and spice are followed by a medium to full-bodied wine with deep fruit, admirable purity, and a long, textured finish. There is not a hard edge to this wine, and in all likelihood, it can be drunk now or cellared for two decades.  Wine Advocate #194, May 2011

2007 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion 

Price: $785.00    Sale $691

(91 Points) A strong effort in this vintage, the evolved, perfumed, purple-tinged 2007 Cheval Blanc offers complex aromas of menthol, cedar wood, mulberries, and black currants. Medium-bodied with beautiful fruit, sweet tannin, and a heady finish, this lovely wine should drink well for 10-15 years.  Wine Advocate #188, Apr 2010

2006 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion    

Price: $941.00    Sale $828.00       Case $9595

(95 Points) The brilliant 2006 Cheval Blanc performed better from bottle than from barrel. A blend of equal parts Cabernet Franc and Merlot grown in a superb vineyard site facing La Conseillante and l’Evangile at the very edge of the sandy, gravelly soils of St.-Emilion, it boasts a dense ruby/purple color as well as a sweet perfume of menthol, charcoal, boysenberries, black currants, and hints of cocoa and caramel. Lush, textured, and opulent with superb purity, medium to full body, savory flavors, and sweet, sexy tannins, this stunning Cheval Blanc may be even better than the 2005. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2030.   Wine Advocate #181, Feb 2009

2005 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

Price: $1223        Sale $1077

(96 Points) The dense ruby/purple-hued 2005 Cheval Blanc’s ethereal bouquet of menthol, coffee, wet stones, black cherries, blackberries, and hints of graphite and spice soars from the glass. An equal part blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, it is medium to full-bodied with a gorgeous texture in addition to high tannins that glide over the palate with no angularity or astringency. While it does not quite reach the perfection of the 2000, it should rival the profound 1998 and 1990. This is not a Cheval Blanc for near-term drinking as it demands at least a decade’s worth of cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2035.   Wine Advocate #176, Apr 2008

2003 Chateau Cheval Blanc St. Emilion

Price: $1105.00  Sale $972.40

(96 Points) Blackberry, mineral and lightly toasted oak. Subtle and complex. Full-bodied, with wonderfully sweet fruit character and ultra refined tannins. Goes on and on. Gorgeous and seductive. Best after 2009. 5,055 cases made. –JS  Wine Watch Issue: Mar 31, 2006