1955 Château Cheval Blanc

Community Tasting Notes (59) Avg Score: 94.8 points

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  1/20/2024 - johnh1001 wrote: 96 Points

  Top shoulder. Cork soaked through. Did not decant. Somewhat subtle nose of dark fruit, chocolate, earth and violet. Rich and creamy on the palate. Much more going on here than the nose would suggest. Gorgeously smooth and well balanced. Long sweet finish. This was going strong after 2+ hours.

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  7/27/2023 - _water.into.wine_ Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Quite remarkable to think that a 68 year old wine would not only have lasted this long but still retained its fruit and elegance. Clearly in its twilight years, this is most certainly still alive and kicking. It helps the bottle was well stored and a solid cork has clearly helped not accelerating its age. Lots of cigar box and tobacco are present with some nice leather. A wonderful experience. From PM in Valence.

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  7/17/2022 - Cailles wrote: 97 Points

  16 Mature Bordeaux Magnums 1945/47/55/59 (+Unico): Three 1955s, all from magnum. Clear winner and red WOTN was the Cheval Blanc (97+ pts). Incredible complex, ever changing, a beautiful fruit core, sensual Cheval caramel and toasty components, all embedded in a flawless structure. Second place for Haut Brion (93 pts). Not the best bottle with the smoke/cured meat notes being too dominating. Still, the substance and tension of this wine are impressive. Lastly, 1955 isn‘t a particularly strong year for Margaux (91 pts) and although this bottle was better than my last, which was dead, this bottle had not enough complexity, precision, not elegance to fully convince.
  
  TN: Dark, dense nose. With time the nose opens up and becomes very complex with ripe dark fruit, darker red berries,smoke, wet earth, some meaty hints. On the palate a clear step up. The wine displays lots of chocolate, dark fruit some red berries, caramel, hints of burnt sugar, some herbs. Even some blue fruit. Spicy and some meat hints, wet earth. Ever so slightly changing and evolving. Highly complex and very well defined. The tannins are silky, the acidity is medium and keeps the wine light. Super balance and so strong from start to the quite long finish. Quite complete and if the nose would have been even better this could have been a 98-10 pts wine.
  
  Decanting: Double decanted 3+ hours before the tasting.

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  7/2/2022 - sirpat00 Likes this wine: 98 Points

  Richter Magnum Rarity Tasting (Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zurich): Tasted at a grand magnum rarities tasting hosted by a merchant and collector in Zurich. Most bottles were Bordeaux from the 40s and 50s. The top 3 wines 1. Cheval Blanc 1955 (98), 2. Ausone 1959 (97), 3. Haut-Brion 1955 (95). Full list of wines sorted by score and additional observations included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting notes
  Coffee, black tea and refined red cherry fruit, ripe and sweet in style. A bit of sous-bois, a bit of leather as well as a spicey overlay. Adding spearmint, eucalyptus and black currant over time. Incredibly layered and detailed. Palate has a soft, statin texture with a firm structure, tangible yet soft tannin. The heights Cheval can achieve 65 years after bottling is just mind-blowing here.

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  7/2/2022 - G_H wrote: 97 Points

  Annual Richter All-Magnum Extravaganza: Well hello and thank you. I had a negociant bottling of this a few years ago that just wasn't good. But this one -oh my god- pure St.Emilion magic!
  
  Red and dark berries, dark chocolate, herbal notes and the structure of the wine was just absolutely perfect. Amazing!

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