2023 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Sémillon. Cask sample.

Sauvignon character is evident on the nose. The palate has a certain depth of fruit, but it is a little more forward than usual. Less éclat at the moment, but Chevalier often surprises with a bit of bottle age.

Drink 2026 - 2032

Ripe citrus, honeyed flowers, mint, and a kiss of background oak all define the 2023 Domaine De Chevalier Blanc, a beautifully textured, medium-bodied white with terrific mid-palate depth and richness, integrated acidity, and an excellent finish. It's clearly up with the crème de la crème and has the vintage's mix of richness and freshness.

The 2023 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc is one of the best dry whites of the year. Creamy and expansive, with terrific brightness, this exudes balance. Citrus confit, white pepper, mint, almond, pear and crushed rocks are some of the notes that build as the 2023 shows off its pedigree. I expect it will offer exceptional drinking for the next several decades. What else is new?

Drink 2030 - 2053

The 2023 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc was picked from August 28 to September 6 at 45hL/ha. It’s a blend of 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Sémillon. 

This has wonderful purity on the nose, revealing scents of lime, green apple and crushed stone—one of the most precise I have encountered at this early stage. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity that lends this white Pessac-Léognan superb focus. There’s real intensity here, building with a sense of nascent confidence toward the mineral, almost slate-like finish. Very long and tender, this is a white Domaine de Chevalier from the top drawer.

Drink 2028 - 2050

This is a blend of 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Sémillon.

A perfumed, complex bouquet of pear, white peach, hazelnuts, lime tree leaves and spring flowers prefaces the 2023 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and concentrated wine with racy acids, chalky, structuring dry extract, and a bright, vibrant profile that’s rare in this vintage.

Drink 2025 - 2045

If you have a vintage with a heatwave, you can count on this estate to outperform, and it did again in 2023, with wine marked by refined aromas of wet stone, lemongrass, verbena, fresh herb, lime, quince and kiwi. This kaleidoscope of aromas and flavours is encapsulated in a smooth and vivacious palate that remains precise and with exciting precision through to a long finish. The somewhat high alcohol is balanced by the acidity as the team picked to attain ripeness, while not doing any malolactic fermentation to preserve freshness.

Drink 2026 - 2045

Got to be the most consistent of all Pessac Léognan whites, sets out its stall immediately with fresh acidities and fennel spice, giving a kick and lift, classically nuanced and structured. White pear, sage, liquorice root, savoury as all hell, and so moreish. Working with Stéphane Derenocourt since 2018 on the whites longer on the reds).

Drink 2025 - 2040

70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Sémillon.

This is layered and complex with an impressive mineral tension and depth. Medium- to full-bodied, very long and persistent. It has oyster shell, crushed stone and citrus peel character with racy acidity coming through, adding to its length and tension. Very long and firm at the end with a backbone of fine tannins for a white.