DOMAINE DE CHEVALIER
2015 Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan
A brighter sweetness than the Carmes HB tasted just before, but not the aromatic depth. Ripe tannins gently build. Nice long pure finish with a touch of sweetness. It is good, but it lacks the aromatic drama and definition of some recent vintages. Rating: 91-92 L&S (Apr 2016)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier has a typical nose from this Pessac-Léognan estate. It's understated but beguiling, with cedar, undergrowth-tinged red fruit and just a subtle background dab of peppermint. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins. This is fleshy for a Domaine de Chevalier and perhaps has less grip. A judicious dash of black pepper enlivens the finish and there is a bit more persistence than I recall. The 2015 is delicious from the start. Tasted at the 2015 Ten-Year-On tasting at Bordeaux Index. Drinking range: 2025 - 2048 Rating: 94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2025)
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier has a perfumed, quite floral bouquet with rose petals and cedar infusing the red berry fruit, nicely detailed with blacker fruit uncovered by aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, sweet and rounded, very plush in style with a caressing, femme fatale of a finish. I have actually encountered better bottles than this, though it remains a class act. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting. Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2019)
Suave, spicy oak and warm, stony aromas, making immediate interest and giving way to vivid and fresh dark cherries, blackberries and cassis. The palate adds graphite-like, savory cherry-stone flavors amid smooth, velvety tannins. Tangy blackberries through the finish. Impressive. Drinking range: 2020 - Rating: 97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2018)
One of the stars of the vintage, the 2015 Domaine de Chevalier has turned out even better than I expected. Bright floral notes give striking aromatic lift to the rich, sumptuous fruit. A marvelously complete wine, the 2015 is racy and silky on the palate, yet also has tremendous freshness. Bright red cherry, blood orange, white pepper, spice and dried flowers build into the super-expressive finish. The 2015 has been nothing less than stunning the three times I have tasted it so far. This is a tremendous showing from proprietor Olivier Bernard and his team. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. Tasted three times. Drinking range: 2022 - 2045 Rating: 97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2018)
Outperformed (only just) by some of its neighbours in 2015, but Domaine de Chevalier is still hard to beat for value and consistency. Firm and smoky with a carapace of tannin concealing the plummy, fruitcake-like flavours beneath. The acidity brings freshness to the finish. Drinking range: 2022 - 2035 Rating: 92 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (May 2016)
Great tension and subtlety. Extremely savoury - almost salty - with freshness and ripeness. Not one of the deepest colours. Lovely appetising low-key classicism. Bravissimo à tous! Drinking range: 2024 - 2045 Rating: 18 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2016)
A really smoky concentration on the nose here, all crushed black cherries and perfumed wild black plums, with a little touch of liquorice, but above all it has great purity. The palate is fresh, poised, showing a supple texture of creamed black plum fruit, over a very ripe bed of tannins, svelte but interlaced beautifully with the substance of the wine. Such poised concentration, the palate elegant and yet brimming with fruit and structure. Delightfully fresh and grippy in the finish, all ultimately very ripe. Rating: 17.5-18.5/20 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2016)
Sexy burnish of charcoal-grilled rich black cherry fruit with firmly held tannins. A lovely wine – fairly high powered compared to some; this is one to cellar for a while. 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 33% new oak. Drinking range: 2025 - 2038 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot picked from 23 September until 15 October at just 35 hl/ha, matured in 35% new oak. It has a sophisticated bouquet that is more reserved than its peers. It possesses one of the most precise, detailed aromatic profiles that I have encountered from this estate, wonderfully poised with black fruit, incense and cold stone. It has wonderful focus and class. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, very complex with lightly peppered black fruit. What marks this Domaine de Chevalier is the reserve and precision on the finish, a wine that is holding something back for its secondary evolution, a salinity that beckons you back for another sip. What a fabulous, intellectual wine from Olivier Bernard. Expect four decades of drinking pleasure - probably more - given my experience of ancient vintages. Drinking range: 2022 - 2055 Rating: 95-97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier is one of the most striking wines of the year. Weightless, powerful and intense, the 2015 possesses crystalline delineation and precision from the very first taste. Bright red stone fruit, pomegranate, chalk and mint are some of the signatures. In the last of my four tastings, the Domaine de Chevalier showed tremendous richness and intensity as well. It will be interesting to see where the 2015 ends up. The future certainly looks bright. In 2015 the blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. The wine will see around 35% new oak. Stéphane Dernonourt and his team consult on the red. Rating: 93-96 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
Offers an open, easy feel. The creamy structure lets juicy plum and raspberry notes flow along and linger on the finish. Almost languid in character, and very suave. Rating: 91—94 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)
This shows class and finesse with ultra-fine tannins and succulent fruit. Full body yet elegant and long. Gorgeous wine. Such length. Vibrant and focused. Rating: 96-97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2016)
Domaine de Chevalier
Domaine de Chevalier, located in Léognan and surrounded by forest, enjoys a particular microclimate. Unlike some of the Pessacs which are surrounded by urban development which raises the average temperature, Chevalier is quite a cool terroir.
Olivier Bernard has owned and run the estate since 1983, and has done much to improve the quality of the wines. The white has always been one of Bordeaux's finest, and is even better now, and Bernard has dramatically increased the quality of the red, especially in the last ten years.
Domaine de Chevalier has a soil of dark sand and fine white gravel. It is planted at 10,000 vines per hectare averaging 35 years old.
There are 7 Hectares planted for white with 70% Sauvignon and 30% Sémillon.
There are 60 Hectares planted for red, comprising 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc.
At the harvest the white grapes are picked in baskets with successive picking through the vines.
The red grapes are also picked in baskets, with triple sorting: first in the vines, then the complete bunch on the sorting table and third by optical sorting machine, berry by berry.
The white is pressed slowly, and settlement (débourbage) and alcoholic fermentation occur in the barrel, with 35% new wood. The wine is aged on the lees in barrel with stirring (batonnage), for 18 months.
The red grapes are vatted by gravity without pumping. The alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel and coated steel temperature-controlled vats. Maceration for 2 to 3 weeks with a maximum fermentation temperature of 30° C and manual pigeage. The wine is aged for 18 months (four months on the lees), with 35% new wood.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.