Château Cheval Blanc 2018 (750ml)

Decanter

 "A great Cheval Blanc that stands up to the potential that I found during en primeur. Extremely restrained and classic in its construction, shot through with points of mint, liquorice, raspberry and eucalyptus. The fresh aromatics mean you could almost think that it is from a cool year, except for the huge density that runs through the palate, along with a creamy texture. Extremely good-quality. Something that you are going to want to put away for a good few decades. I get big, chewy tannins on the finish. Exceptionally good and extremely elegant. 3.77pH. Bottled July 2020. A yield of 44hl/ha." (Drink between 2028-2055)  100 points

JB 98 

"Showing beautifully from barrel and now from bottle, the 2018 Château Cheval Blanc is a final blend of 54% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a pure, classic Cheval Blanc in that it relies more on complexity and elegance than power, offering a beautiful perfume of red and blackcurrants, spring flowers, spice, forest floor, incense, and tobacco. This carries to a medium to full-bodied Cheval Blanc offering wonderful purity of fruit, a seamless, layered texture, incredible tannins, and a lengthy, focused finish. It shows less of the sunny style of the vintage now than it did from barrel, and it's a wonderfully complete wine that delivers awesome freshness in its aromatics, plenty of ripe, sweet fruit, and the tannins and structure that seem to come from a long, cooler season. Reminding me slightly of the 2016, with a touch of the 2001, give this gorgeous wine 5-7 years of bottle age, count yourself lucky, and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades."

"Thirty-three plots contributed to this wine, out of the 43 in production. Five went into Petit Cheval and five into bulk. The 2018 Cheval Blanc is a blend of 54% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, with a 3.75 pH and 14.5% alcohol. Deep purple-black in color, the nose is more open at the core of the wine than the Le Petit Cheval, strutting out of the glass with bold, ripe black cherries, cassis, warm plums and raspberry preserves notes. With coaxing, a whole array of fragrant spice, floral and earth notes emerge, followed by candied violets, star anise, powdered cinnamon, iron ore, tapenade and truffles plus wafts of camphor and mocha. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm yet possesses a beautifully plush structure of velvety tannins wrapping round the densely packed, complex, fragrant fruit, with seamless freshness and a very long, layered finish.

“The berries had a lot of tannins,” commented Technical Director Pierre-Olivier Clouet. “It was a challenge to ripen all those tannins!” Cheval Blanc had a particularly long harvest, being among the last to bring in the final parcels of Cabernet Franc on October 11. “We had to wait for each plot to get the right maturity,” added Clouet. “This gave us these wines with great drinkability—very silky and round.” Yields were a very healthy 43 hectoliters per hectare this year. “Too small of a yield would have been detrimental,” said Clouet. “We had to find the balance in the weather that followed.” Pierre Lurton, the Director of Cheval Blanc and d'Yquem, joined us at this stage. “This wine truly represents the whole vineyard,” he was excited to add. “Seventy-four percent of our total production went into Cheval Blanc this year, including components of the whole vineyard. Young vines, old vines, clay, gravel and sand—all participated in the final blend.” This vintage of Cheval Blanc is astonishingly beautiful. Even if the wine doesn’t eventually wind up with a perfect score for this vintage, what I particularly love about the 2018 is that it is so true to the heart-and-soul signature of this amazing vineyard. And, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but maybe that is even more important than a perfect score?

Wine Spectator 97

"This has the vintage's profile, with a sleek and slightly austere frame holding a core of cassis, bitter cherry and raspberry coulis notes tightly together while flashes of bay, dried anise and savory add range and detail. Has a late tug of warm earth along with a very perfumy echo through the finish. A beauty. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2024 through 2038." 10,208 cases made. — JM