Domaine de Chevalier 2008

The 2008 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 91/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A bright late season saved a cool summer: wines of unexpected freshness and aromatic precision.

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

While the alcoholic fermentations went smoothly, the malolactic fermentations were extremely long, delaying the first blend tastings. These revealed very deeply coloured wines with bright fruit, whose structure and tannic freshness are worthy of the great Bordeaux of a good vintage.

Blend of the 2008 vintage

Figures from the 2008 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 for 16 to 20 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.