Domaine de Chevalier 2005

The 2005 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 97/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Drought without any halt in ripening, together with cool nights, gave a legendary vintage: concentrated, with firm tannins and very long aging potential.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The red wines are more heterogeneous and the crus will be set apart by their viticultural efforts, their terroirs, the proportion of Cabernets and the rigour of their selections. In any case it is premature to judge them after less than two months of ageing. The most successful, while lacking the concentration of the greatest vintages, nonetheless possess the freshness, breeding and complexity of great Bordeaux.

Blend of the 2005 vintage

Figures from the 2005 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 25 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Vatting by gravity, without pumping. Alcoholic fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Manual punching down. Maceration at 30-32°C for 2 to 3 weeks.

Ageing

Aged in barrels (grand vin), one third new oak, for 16 to 18 months

Terroir

The overall structure of the Chevalier soils takes the form of a layer of black gravelly sand with an average thickness of 60 to 90 cm. Variations in the thickness and depth of the gravel vein create a mosaic of soils that calls for very fine plot-by-plot management, even though the whole shows an evident homogeneity. Overall, these soils are acidic, poor and very free-draining. The very rich subsoil is made up of a clay-gravel base mixed with alios (iron pan), into which the vine roots deeply, thus overcoming the water variations caused by the climate. Vine growth and grape ripening therefore proceed in a remarkably regular manner.