2025 Cheval Blanc

Auslieferung bis zum Herbst 2028!
Delivery until Fall 2028!

Of all the wines I tasted in the 2025 En Primeur season, this is the one that I have thought about the most. The lowest ever yield at 15hl/ha yield, close to 1961 in terms of volume. There were tiny berries, barely scraping 1g even for the Merlots, even after dropping 10-50% of the grapes even on young vines to minimise water stress. Visually beautiful, deep plum colour, intense, slate, graphite, this has a construction that is clear, muscle, sinew, carved tannins, going long on campfire, chamomile, bitter chocolate, incense, anis, cassis, mint leaf, eucalyptus, crushed rocks, savoury broth. This forces you to project forward - if we are lucky enough to be pulling a bottle out of a cellar in 2060, this Cheval will still be powering along. The honest truth is that I can't tell you with 100% certainly how long it will take to get to its full drinking window. I have not seen a young Cheval with this kind of construction, and I am erring on the side of caution in this note, hoping that it will be more readable in bottle. Stunning and impressive, but I have not yet fallen in love. No Petit Cheval. Harvest September 1 to 18. 3.76ph. Pierre Olivier Clouet director.
96/100 Jane Anson

(Saint-Émilion; 51% Merlot; 45% Cabernet Franc; 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; a final yield of 15 hl/ha; pH 3.76; 12.7% alcohol; tasted with Pierre Olivier Clouet at Cheval Blanc). Cheval Blanc suffered the longest sustained period without rainfall in its history. The wine comes from the smallest ever grapes harvested here (c. 1.1g per grape for the Merlot, 0.6g for the Cabernet Franc). 2 kg for a fruit were required for each litre of wine produced, around twice the norm. 46 of the 47 parcels were used in the grand vin after drastic measures to reduce the potential yields, above all on gravel. Despite all of that we have a wine of striking poise and staggering harmony. Black cherry, mulberry, black berry, cassis, graphite and a touch of cedar. Peony blooms. Rose petals and rose blooms. Peppercorns freshly crushed. A wild heather note, thyme and a little rosemary. Classical, if subtle, cedar notes, with more graphite and pencil shavings on aeration. This is very dark and composed, cool - almost plungepool cool - at the core with that incredibly vivid and utterly beautiful violet florality that seems to radiate outwards from the centre of the wine. So complete, so harmonious, so elegant and so perfectly integrated. A wine of perfect harmony. The sublimation of Cheval Blanc and a reward for the investment in the vineyard. This is a wine of shimmering beauty today and of ageless potential for tomorrow. It is radiant and that radiance seems to flow from the Cabernet Franc core of the mid-palate, like the explosion of a firework of freshness captured in slow motion.
98-100/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2025 Cheval Blanc needs a little patient shaking and swirling to unlock notes of black raspberries, mulberries, red currant preserves, and pencil shavings, leading to hints of damp soil and charcoal. The light-bodied palate is fantastically elegant and soft-spoken with very fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness matching the delicate red and black fruit layers, finishing long and minerally. The blend is 51% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. The alcohol is 12.7% and the pH is 3.76. This is aging in French oak barrels, 100% new.
96-98/100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Very moderate alcohol level at 12,7 %, low pH. Fresh and fruit driven nose. Very clean, silky and velvety wine with notes of red currants, spices and gravel. This is not a heavy weigh but a fresh and elegant, perfumed wine. As with many other 2025s this should be drinkable earlier than normal. No Petit Cheval this year as all the plots were deemed suitable to go into the grand vin
94-97/100+ The Wine Independent