DOMAINE DE CHEVALIER
2020 Blanc Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan
Market insight: Another victim of its own back vintages, when you can buy the 2010 for £50 more than the 2019, it stifles the incentive. That said, we love the wine and it deserves to be selling for more - £50 per bottle really won't be much to ask for the 2020 and there's a lot of fun to be had owning verticals.
Tasting note: 70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Sémillon. Quite reserved on the nose. There's lots of texture and good weight on the palate. Lovely depth of fruit with notes of passionfruit & citrus. Good level of phenolics too and nice acidity. A very well poised wine that should be very approachable in a few years.L&S (May 2021)
* 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 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc marries power and tension so well. Lemon confit marzipan, chamomile, dried orchard fruit and crushed flowers all build effortlessly into the expansive, beautifully resonant finish. Above all else, the Blanc is a wine of savory/mineral complexity and structure. I wouldn't dream of touching a bottle anytime soon. Tasted two times. Drinking range: 2026 - 2050 Rating: 95 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2023)
Domaine de Chevalier, under the careful ownership of Oliver Bernard, provides such consistent quality in red and white, and proves it again in 2020. Has a confident, sculpted feel, majoring on waves of white pear, citrus, elderflower, touches of saffron, lovely quality and real grip. A yield of 43hl/ha, with ageing potential, and weight through the mid palate. Diam cork closure. Drinking range: 2023 - 2032 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Feb 2023)
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, the only white that I tasted from a dispatched barrel sample, has a discrete but complex bouquet with honeysuckle, chamomile, citrus fruit and light waxy aromas. It's quite understated but it responds to aeration. The palate is fresh on the entry, lightly spiced with modest weight. It does not possess the nervosité of the previous vintage, but it has concentration and presence. This is more a textural dry white Pessac than one that simply doles out tons of fruit or relies on tension. Very fine. Drinking range: 2025 - 2050 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Feb 2023)
Sheer heaven on the nose, this is one of the most balanced and perfumed wines of the vintage and it shows stunningly tender lime blossom and honeysuckle fruit against a backdrop of ‘blonde’ oak and creamy, blanched almond tones. The acidity is thrilling, making this an electrifying treat and it will drink well in its youth as well as develop nicely, too, such is the innate balance here. Rating: 18 Matthew Jukes www.matthewjukes.com (Jun 2021)
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc is fabulous. Bright and airy in the glass, the 2020 bristles with energy. Lemon confit, crushed rocks, mint and white pepper all pulse with tons of vibrancy. This finely-cut, chiseled white is going to need a number of years to be at its best, but it is so impressive and so full of potential. Bright saline notes punctuate the dazzling finish. Time in the glass brings out the wine's texture and layers. The Blanc is one of the world's great wines, hands down. Drinking range: 2030 - 2050 Rating: 94-96 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Jun 2021)
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc was cropped at 43hl/ha and will spend 18 months in barrel. It has a very composed bouquet of green apple, kiwi fruit, crushed rock and dried white flower aromas. There is nothing extravagant on the nose, but it is beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with a fine bead of acidity, displaying light honeyed notes on the entry mixed with chamomile and almond and hints of marzipan. Very harmonious from start to finish, this is a refined and classy Domaine de Chevalier Blanc. Drinking range: 2025 - 2050 Rating: 91-93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2021)
The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc bursts with notions of ripe yellow apples, juicy pears and lime blossoms, plus hints of blanched almonds, yuzu zest and wet pebbles. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers impactful apple and citrus flavors with a racy backbone and seductive oiliness to the texture, finishing long and minerally. Drinking range: 2025 - 2038 Rating: 94-96 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (May 2021)
Full embossed bottle 1,330 g. Undated cask sample. 70% Sauvignon, 30% Sémillon. In conversion to organic viticulture. Fermented and aged for 18 months in barrel. Subtle, salivatory, mineral nose. Quite rich and dense on the palate – lots more depth here than in most dry white Pessac-Léognans. Seems weightier and richer than most previous vintages. Builds towards the finish. On past form, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt regarding ageability. 13.5% Drinking range: 2023 - 2030 Rating: 16.5+ Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2021)
70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Sémillon. Cask sample. Unusually open and aromatic with citrus, guava and passion-fruit notes. Palate round and full but with a refreshing bite of acidity and again those expressive fruit notes. More immediate pleasure than long term? Drinking range: 2024 - 2030 Rating: 16.5+ James Lawther MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2021)
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 on the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do contact our private client team via email or on 020 7018 0187.
Ordering
Prices are all in bond by the case size stated.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment to buy wines on release, as long as the release price is within the upper and lower price bands set by you on the pre-order form. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability but providing this firm commitment to buy effectively gives you priority and is a good idea for the most desirable wines.
Wines listed on the website can be ordered in the usual way via the website wishlist order form. You can also send orders directly to our private client team via email. Please note that, for the most sought-after wines, priority will be given to those who ordered the same wines last year and to those that have pre-ordered.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of email confirmation. Pre-orders are not binding if the release price is above your upper price band.
Invoices are all raised at the in bond price (excluding any duty and VAT) which will become payable at the prevailing rates when the wines arrive in the UK, should you wish to take duty paid delivery.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We regret we cannot accept credit cards for en primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (at 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 £500. Orders below this total will be charged an administration and handling fee of £16.50+ VAT when invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery of 2022 Bordeaux bought en primeur is expected during 2025. Delivery dates may vary as wines are shipped from Bordeaux at different times.
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). Immediate payment of invoices is then required by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option but please note that confirmed orders are still binding even if the final invoice has not yet been issued.
Please specify on your wishlist order form where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. If this is to a third-party bonded warehouse, please specify the relevant account details. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue a second invoice for duty and VAT at the prevailing rate when the wines are available for delivery.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the format you want. While most of our listings are for 75cl bottles, we can source wines in any format that is offered by the Château. Please note that format requests cannot be changed once wines have been invoiced. Additional charges for special formats do apply and are as follows:-
- +£18.00 per case of 12 half-bottles
- +£30.00 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£7.50 per case of 3 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£11.00 per case of 6 Magnums
- +£45.00 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£60.00 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.
Storage Options:
Wines bought en primeur won't arrive in the UK until 2025. If you do not wish to take home delivery at that point, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our private client team for more information.