2009 Domaine de Chevalier

Community Tasting Note

chatters wrote:

Thursday, August 6, 2020 - Coravin fun - Domaine de Chevalier rouge; 8/4/2020-8/12/2020 (My place, Kent Street): From Coravin. Aromas of plums, blackcurrant, a little cassis, sweet spice and a smidge of black cherry. Under this is a touch of pencil shavings, cedar and a touch of wood glue. It's a little ripe and a little soft on the palate for me and, arguably, it's a touch anonymous. Flavours are quite Ribena with a lick of black cherry, tannins are quite soft and all carries long. I would hope that time will help here as the nose promises much.

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7 comments have been posted

Comment posted by Rick & Ilsa:

8/11/2020 9:41:00 PM - Appreciated your notes on the '09 and '10 Domaine de Chevalier. Sounds like at this point you preferred the '10 to the '09. Curious which you thought holds the higher potential for the future and maybe a time line. Thank you.
Sante'
Comment posted by chatters:

8/11/2020 10:59:00 PM - My pleasure...

it's my first encounter with the 2009 though I've been fortunate enough to try the 2010 previously.

I think both wines have the potential to last for at least another 20 years - even though the 2009 is inherently riper on the nose and palate they both have the acid backbone to support this longevity. Then it just comes down to personal taste - if you like tertiary characteristics (leather, farmyard, mushroom, Autumn leaves etc) then drink them later but if you like primary fruit then drink them sooner.

Both of these wines, in their different ways, feel as if they are still very much in the latter of those two propositions, still primary. I wouldn't drink them now but that is because, generally, I stray towards the enjoyment of tertiary characteristics - all rules are made to be broken though because I'd happily smash a bottle of the 2015 which is positively singing.

Do you have both of the wines in your cellar? The other option (and the one that has rather revolutionised my life) is to invest in a Coravin and just tap them both on a regular basis!

Sorry I've gone a bit...cheers, chatters
Comment posted by Rick & Ilsa:

8/12/2020 6:32:00 AM - Just went thru your tasting notes and saw your vertical of DdC, impressive, and I'm a little jealous. I do have a fair amount of the 2009 and a few bottles of both the 2010, and the 2015 in my cellar. I've been holding off because in general I prefer secondary and tertiary characteristics in wines from the left bank, whereas I seem to enjoy the right bank wines earlier. The Cabernet vs the Merlot component I suppose. I have been an early adopter of the coravin, but in at home experiments I found that bottles compared, after 1 - 2 years after being coravined, with others not coravined seemed much more advanced and in a couple of cases, corked. I've been reading your "coravin fun" notes for several years and almost reached out before to see if you've had any problems. Anything you're doing different that you've learned thru that process?

Anyway, thanks for the response, keep up the good work with the coravin fun notes. Guess I'll dust off the coravin and check out the 2009 at least.

All the best.
Comment posted by chatters:

8/12/2020 9:16:00 PM - Hey there,

thanks for your kind comments. Regarding your statement:

"I have been an early adopter of the coravin, but in at home experiments I found that bottles compared, after 1 - 2 years after being coravined, with others not coravined seemed much more advanced and in a couple of cases, corked."

I have always been very wary of transferring cork taint from one corked bottle to another with the Coravin. Therefore when I am tasting wines I always have a sniff at the glass before I move on to the next 'sampling' to have a quick look for cork taint (I'm rather sensitive to it) and, if it shows, I always give the Coravin a very big clean. Until recently that is all I used to do...having said that, after a particularly disappointing showing of a wine, that had been previously 'Coravined', which showed huge levels of volatility I have started now rinsing the Coravin between all tastes using a pouring, giving the needle a quick and spritzing out the water (with a quick squeeze of the trigger). It's a bit of a pain but better to be safe than sorry.

I hope that is of some help.

cheers, chatters
Comment posted by Rick & Ilsa:

8/13/2020 6:05:00 AM - Thanks for the advice, makes good sense. I'll adopt some sort of a similar program to accomplish the same, and try it on a few bottles. Added myself to your fan list to help highlight your notes.

Stay healthy,
Sante' Dave
Comment posted by srh:

8/13/2020 11:37:00 AM - Thanks to BOTH parties here for this FASCINATING strand! :)
Comment posted by chatters:

8/16/2020 2:47:00 AM - cheers all, lovely dialogue, please all stay safe,
chatters