Domaine de Chevalier 2015

The 2015 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 93/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot summer tempered by August rains gave expansive wines, with rounded tannins and generous fruit.

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

Intense dark red colour. Very fresh, charming and attractive nose. On the palate the attack is silky and gourmand, giving way to an exquisite fruity flesh coating a very dense but non-aggressive structure. The wine is fine, complex and very elegant, with a lovely mineral freshness. It combines the silky, fleshy quality of the 2009 with the superb structure of the 2005!

The vintage

A dry, sunny year of high quality in both red and white. Very dry spring with a superb flowering in late May to early June. Dry, sunny summer with stormy interludes; the drought became worrying in July and led to water stress, then good, not very violent storms in August watered and unlocked the vines. Early and regular veraison of all varieties, with good homogeneity. Balances progressed quickly and an early harvest seemed likely, but it was necessary to wait a little to target the great aromas of the whites as well as possible and to refine the tannins of the reds: harvesting finally took place on the normal dates.

Red harvest: the constant fine weather favoured full ripeness of the red varieties, which refined their tannins; harvest dates were chosen very precisely, by tasting the berries. The Merlots began on 23 September, the Petit Verdots on 2 October, the Cabernet Francs on 5 October and the Cabernet Sauvignons on 6 October; the harvest ended on 15 October. All varieties had beautiful healthy bunches, but small ones, with small berries and thick skins (scars of the drought from April to July), which largely explains the low yields. Quality is nevertheless excellent for each variety: the grapes are rich and balanced by magnificent acidity, and the great gravel soils contributed greatly to this freshness.

Blend of the 2015 vintage

Figures from the 2015 sheet

• 13.5 % vol.Alcohol
• 35 hl/haYield
• 35 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Hand-picked into small crates, with careful sorting in the vineyard and then in the cellar before and after destemming. Three vat rooms (stainless steel, tulip-shaped concrete and wooden vats) to optimise plot selection, perfect extraction and refine the blend.

Ageing

Aged in barrels (grand vin), one third new oak, for 16 to 18 months, with lees stirring during the first 4 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.