Still a bit young, the acids have the upper hand yet the primary fruit has faded slightly. A deeply colored rosé with lots of orange and gold. Lightly aromatic of strawberry and orange peel, lively fruit. Very nice but somewhat awkward.

Young and tannic as expected but the tannins are ripe in this excellent vintage on the Rive Gauche. Showing a lot of its Cabernet Franc, leafy and meaty. Tight but very promising. Cheval Blanc takes a lot of time to come around.

Wow, this is a stunner and most surely be one of the most successful wines of the vintage. The floral fragrance is truly sensational. It’s still youthful, perhaps perched on the edge of secondary development. Unusual combination of meaty fruit and peppermint. No hint of any roasted grapes. Excellent length and miles to go.

A much different expression of Cheval Blanc than the other wines in the series, the ‘83 was wild and feral. As soon as I took a sniff and sip, I fleetingly thought of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. After a few minutes it settled down to become the mature St. Émilion it is. More minerals than most, more of earth and stems than tree or bush fruit. I wonder if this bottle is representative.

To me, disappointing, although not to the owner, who thought it was great. Mature color, less saturated than some of the older vintages on display. There’s a lot of depth here but an absence of energy, sucrosity and ripeness I have found in previous bottles of this wine. Old for an ‘82, well into its secondaries. It’s somewhat enjoyable but this bottle is not what it should be.

I like this vintage of Cheval Blanc for its filigree tannins and its remarkable complexity. It’s balanced on the head of a pin, as if just a touch more acidity or tannin would cause it to fall off the pin cliff. There’s some modestly ripe fruit in there for sure. Catch it now before it expires.

This is the best corked wine I have ever tasted. When first opened, it gave off a lovely delicate fragrance so I double decanted it with confidence. At the restaurant it gradually became obvious it was TCA affected although unusually, it improved slightly with oxygen to the point where it was (almost) drinkable.

A stunning bottle of ‘64 Cheval Blanc, but since it was recorked in 1996, it’s impossible to tell how much of its amazingly youthful exuberance might be due to topping up with a younger version. Of course it’s possible it was topped off with more ‘64, but impossible to tell. Once I put my skepticism aside, I enjoyed it immensely for its gorgeous plum and black cherry fruit and fabulous natural sweetness. Super fruity yet the structure is there to support it. Whatever they did in 1996, it worked. Still, I’d like to taste a non-recorked version to compare to it.

A recent purchase, level mid shoulder. It looks genuine. Upon removing the capsule, it revealed that the cork had fallen into the bottle. The liquid was brown. Powerful aroma of oxidized apple and cognac. I summoned up my courage and took a sip. It’s actually pretty good - for a mild cognac. Surprisingly, almost half the bottle was gone by the end of the night, so my guests were either very curious or just liked it anyway.

From a bottle I purchased almost 30 years ago, allegedly from a cold British cellar, very top shoulder level. Expectations for a legend like this are practically impossible to meet, especially with the anticipation building up the last few months I have been planning this Cheval Blanc wine dinner. The cork rose from the bottle easily in one piece due to the magic Durand. The color is shocking, still red, barely orange at the meniscus. Oh, no, could this be a Rudy or Hardy fake? No, by the time we finished the bottle, everyone agreed it was real. Gorgeous bouquet of plum, rose and red licorice. On the palate, the flavors echo the scents with an intriguing hint of mint and prune. It’s still quite sweet, if slightly less so than 20 years ago, and less flamboyant as well, but just as intriguing. To top off this amazing experience is the silky texture and ineffable complexity. Held up fine for a couple of hours until we could resist no more and drained the rest of the bottle. Breathtaking and perfect, a memory of a lifetime.

Another splendid Yquem, this ‘67 found the “sweet” spot between the top heavy hyper-luscious and the lighter more delicate styles of some vintages. The pretty orange tint presages the medium full texture. Botrytis notes are subsumed in the tangerine and slightly spicy fruit. Sugar is high and the acids are just adequate for proper balance. It seemed to get richer and sweeter as it sat in the glass. Really, really good but short of sublime as this vintage can sometimes be.