Tasting Notes
JancisRobinson.com 17/20
Tasted blind. Neat and luscious and sweet. Very slightly tarty. But it beguiles. Much richer than most previous vintages.
Anticipated maturity: 2024-2040
Robert Parker 95
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot picked from 23 September until 15 October at just 35 hl/ha, matured in 35% new oak. It has a sophisticated bouquet that is more reserved than its peers. It possesses one of the most precise, detailed aromatic profiles that I have encountered from this estate, wonderfully poised with black fruit, incense and cold stone. It has wonderful focus and class. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, very complex with lightly peppered black fruit. What marks this Domaine de Chevalier is the reserve and precision on the finish, a wine that is holding something back for its secondary evolution, a salinity that beckons you back for another sip. What a fabulous, intellectual wine from Olivier Bernard. Expect four decades of drinking pleasure – probably more – given my experience of ancient vintages. Tasted three times with consistent notes.
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2055
Vinous 93/100
The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier has a perfumed, quite floral bouquet with rose petals and cedar infusing the red berry fruit, nicely detailed with blacker fruit uncovered by aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, sweet and rounded, very plush in style with a caressing, femme fatale of a finish. I have actually encountered better bottles than this, though it remains a class act. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
