Domaine de Chevalier 2019

The 2019 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot end of summer after a rainy spring gave wines that hold ripeness and freshness together; the cabernets shine here.

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

Very fresh nose with intense, refined fruitiness of red and black fruits. Aromas of black cherry, blackberry and blueberry dominate and are enhanced by notes of pine forest and touches of sweet, finely peppery spice. Silky, dense, delicate, gourmand and energetic attack. Magnificent concentration with finesse. Tight, elegant weave. The sweet flavours of well-ripened fruit are intense and mouth-watering, accompanied by a gustatory complexity typical of this cru: humus, graphite, balsamic flavours. Great overall freshness, magnificent tension. Impeccable and harmonious balance between sweetness and vivacity.

The vintage

A vintage among the greatest, characterised in particular by aromatic intensity, excellent ripeness of the fruit, density and freshness. A wet spring with two frost attacks (13 April, 5 May), contained thanks to the means deployed; very good vine growth. Flowering slightly disturbed by the weather, without preventing a good harvest volume. An exceptional summer, arriving precisely on the calendar date and lasting from 21 June to 15 October, with two waves of great heat (26-27 June and 22-25 July). The hoped-for rain came at strategic moments: in late July and early August, substantial rain triggered veraison, and the vines did not suffer from drought. Excellent conditions in September: fine weather and then, from the 20th, small showers that rebalanced the sugar/acid potential, perfected skin ripeness and gave the grapes a great deal of freshness, with rather cold nights. This thermal amplitude is particularly beneficial for the quality of fruit ripening.

Red harvest: 23 September to 13 October.

Blend of the 2019 vintage

Figures from the 2019 sheet

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

Winemaking

Hand-picked into small crates, with careful sorting in the vineyard, then manual bunch sorting in the cellar and optical berry sorting after destemming. Four vat rooms (steel, 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.