Château CHEVAL BLANC 2023 magnum 150 cl

Description

Jean-Marc Quarin 98 points www.quarin.com
Couleur noire et pourpre. Nez intense et magique, le plus beau de toute cette campagne Primeur 2023. Touches de framboise, de vanille, de réglisse, de goudron. Il est celui sur lequel j’ai passé 10 mn, complexe, beau et rare. Minutieusement gras dès l’entrée en bouche, avec une texture de rêve et une qualité du déroulé où tout glisse et avance lentement pour devenir peu à peu profond dans la persistance, envahi par la saveur d’une très grande longueur complexe. Une fois de plus au sommet. Assemblage : 52 % merlot, 46 % cabernet franc, 2 % cabernet sauvignon. Degré d’alcool : 13°8 – pH : 3,8. Rendement : 40 hl/ha. Sélection : 75 % de la production.

Yves Beck 97-98 points www.yvesbeck.wine
Cheval Blanc est élevé à 100% en fûts neufs (qui seront ensuite utilisés pour l’élevage de Petit Cheval). Que de profondeur et d’homogénéité dans le bouquet de Cheval. L’élevage n’est guère apparent, respectivement, il est en coulisse et a pour ambition d’être le support, le tremplin qui permet à des notes de sureau, de mûres, de réglisse complétées par des nuances de pivoines et de menthe de se profiler. Compact, le vin gagne en densité et en puissance le long du palais. Les tannins apparaissent tardivement et se caractérisent par leur finesse de grain et une subtile austérité, tandis que l’acidité confère du tempérament et de la structure. La puissance est mesurée, ce qui souligne le côté serein du vin. Il est large d’épaule, sans être opulent, puissant sans être surdimensionné et très fin, sans être aérien. De fins amers plébiscitent la finale en relatant les nuances florales constatées dans le bouquet et en étirant la persistance. Un Cheval d’excellent niveau avec un niveau d’équilibre exceptionnel pour fil rouge.  2032-2058  

Neal Martin 96-98 points www.vinous.com
The 2023 Cheval Blanc is uncharacteristically backward on first meeting, and it takes time to really fire up its engines. Quite strict and focused (surprisingly so), the bouquet reveals black fruit, a touch of bilberry, with just a whiff of iris flower. The palate has wonderful symmetry, outstanding mineralité and ample tension. It’s extremely pure, with less weight than the 2022 but perhaps a touch more nerve. Modestly grippy on the finish, this « serious » Cheval Blanc will deserve several years in bottle. It’s cerebral…and I like that. The 2023 is very different from the 2022—a beautiful minor chord.

Antonio Galloni 95-98 points www.vinous.com
The 2023 Cheval Blanc is silky, elegant and exceptionally polished. Cabernet Franc is rarely as expressive as it is here. Everything in the 2023 is about detail. All the elements are so well balanced—so integrated. Red/purplish berry fruit, mint, cinnamon, rose petal and blood orange meld together, while seamless tannins wrap it all up in grand style. What a wine.
Cheval Blanc was one of the highlights of my April trip to Bordeaux. The wines are simply captivating. Technical Director Pierre-Olivier Clouet and his team did some passes to trim irregular bunches and open the canopies. Clouet was quite adamant in his view that yields are better managed through pruning than in dropping crop. Harvest ran from September 6 to October 3. Yields were a bountiful 40 hectoliters per hectare. Of the estate’s production, 75% is Grand Vin, 10% is Petit Cheval, and 15% was sold in bulk.

William Kelley 98-100 points www.robertparker.com
One of the most profound wines of the vintage is the 2023 Cheval Blanc, a striking wine that stands out for its strong sense of identity and seamless integration at such an early stage in its life. Wafting from the glass with notes of mulberries, lilac, dark fruits, iris root and violets, it’s medium to full-bodied, supple and seamless, with a gourmand core of cool, vibrant fruit that entirely conceals its sweet structuring tannins, concluding with a long, perfumed finish. It’s a blend of 52% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, drawing on fully 46 of the blocks that make up Cheval Blanc, and it attained 13.8% alcohol.

One of Bordeaux’s most complex terroirs, Cheval Blanc sits on the site of an ancient river delta, with (to generalize) clay-rich soils in the lower-lying parts where rivulets once flowed and gravel and sand elsewhere. This complexity is reflected, of course, in the resulting wine but also in how it is farmed and made, with thoughtful use of cover crops according to soil type and parcel-by-parcel vinification. A concerted effort is being made, moreover, to bring life back to the vineyard, with hedges of native species to act as wildlife corridors and fruit trees planted among the vines. The same attention to detail that’s applied in the vineyards, for example with regard to developing and testing an in-house massal selection, is applied in the cellar, where cooperage trials are notable for their exigence.

The 2023 vintage has turned out superbly at this address; indeed I can’t think of any young Cheval Blanc that tasted so integrated and harmonious at so early a stage. Director Pierre-Olivier Clouet described the season as unremarkable in terms of rainfall overall (though thunderstorms in June gave rise to almost tropical conditions that amplified disease pressure), observing that temperatures, while high, were not particularly extreme in the context of the last decade. Flowering was rapid and successful, as at other addresses, and in Cabernet, maturity took its time coming, making for a protracted harvest between September 6 and October 3.

Georgina Hindle 97 points  www.decanter.com
Fresh and floral on the nose, cool and crisp aromas. Purple flowers, red and purple berries with crayon, graphite and liquorice. Gorgeous texture on the palate, this has grip and bite, tannins are present and quite imposing, really coating the mouth with a powdery, chalkiness. It has some layers of tannin and ripe fruit but with freshness and lift all the way through. It’s not immediately charming and generous, it’s more controlled, but not strict. Fresh, clean, precise with style and finesse and this packs more power than some. Raspberries, chalky cherries, bright blueberries with wet stones, lots of liquorice and slate. Balanced and containing both warm and cool vintage markers – lots of complexity on offer. It’s missing a touch of that gorgeous charm that Cheval does so well, a sense of enrobing, but it’s very well constructed with lots of personality. The largest ever vintage in the Cheval cellars with a yield of 40hl/ha. 3.82pH.