Château Cheval Blanc, 2024

"So succulent and long on the compacted palate, this shows just enough clean ripe berries as well as cedar and chocolate. This has polished, energizing tannins with a lovely and thoughtful drive, the light austerity giving the wine a push in the finish. Only 12.8% alcohol. A blend of 46% merlot, 48% cabernet franc and 6% cabernet sauvignon."

"A blend of 48% Cabernet Franc, 48% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2024 Château Cheval Blanc is one of the stars of the vintage. Unwinding in the glass with notes of minty berries and plums mingled with violets, cigar wrapper and rose petals, it's medium-bodied, suave and complete, with a cool, layered core of fruit, beautifully integrated tannins and a long, aromatic finish. Pierre-Olivier Clouet and his team conducted an aggressive green harvest and also, exceptionally, used densimetric sorting to mitigate heterogenous maturity between and within bunches (a consequence of a protracted flowering), accepting losses to rot in pursuit of full maturity. Yields were 39 hectoliters per hectare at harvest, but some 34% of that was eliminated between sorting and press wine (which is never retained at Cheval Blanc). Of what fermented, however, 70% ended up in the grand vin."

"Lilac, peony flowers, same family of aromatics as the Petit Cheval, same feeling of finesse and precision, but here everything has been taken up a notch, more density, more slate and pumice stone texture. Expect subtle complexity, a wine that steals up on you, impresses in its precision and clarity. July and August just 20mm of rain each month, well below 30 year average, 140mm rain in September, highest since 2006, harvest September 18 to October 3, 3.62ph (3.9ph in 2022), 37 plots out of the 56 in the vineyard are in here. 100% new oak for ageing. Looking forward to seeing after ageing, it has all the elements and bones in place for a totally delicious Cheval."