2020 Le Petit Cheval Bordeaux Blanc

Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 92.4 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Peech's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/30/2023 - Peech Likes this wine: 92 Points

  a really classic Bordeaux Blanc, pretty fragrant nose but with that pipi de chat, too, in addition to the green apple.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View thesternowl's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/18/2023 - thesternowl wrote: 94 Points

  Presented to me double-blind at Tasting Group. In the glass, the wine is a white wine with a pale straw color; medium viscosity and no signs of particles or gas. On the nose, the wine is youthful with powerful notes of grapefruit, lemon curd, some grassy herbal notes, and faint honeysuckle. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+, almost high acid. Confirming the notes on the nose. The finish is super long and has a luxurious texture.
  
  Initial conclusions: this could be Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Albariño or even Chardonnay from France, the United States, Germany, or Spain. But there is something about that herbal character that just has me in Sauvignon Blanc land and the rich honeyed, juicy texture makes me think this has some Semillon in it…and it’s seen some deft oak treatment. This is a beautiful wine and I think someone was being generous at Tasting Group for the holidays.
  
  Final conclusion: So I’m going Sauvignon Blanc based Bordeaux Blanc blend from France, from Bordeaux, from Pessac-Leognan, 2020. Wrong Bank. Well I’ll be damned! I’ve never had Cheval Blanc’s…ahem, blanc. What a wine! This can be laid down for decades but it’s already special in its youth.

  6 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Xavier Auerbach's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/8/2023 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 92 Points

  Similar in style to the 2021 tasted yesterday, but not quite its equal in playful finesse. It has a bit more power and weight, the aromas display wax and lemon rather than flowers, quite soft in style on the palate but with a nice crispness to it, noticeable bitters, lemon and earth on the finish. Drink at cellar temperature or just above. Note: 1/3 was kept in the fridge overnight and restasted at lunch on the second day. I detected a whiff of straw on the finish. It looks like this wine is quite susceptible to oxygen.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View csimm's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/24/2023 - csimm wrote: 93 Points

  Cheval Blanc & Yquem dinner @ Anhelo Restaurant (with Pierre Lurton) (Phoenix, AZ): Sauvignon Blanc can often come off a bit angular for me, with any attempt to smooth out the edges resulting in a boring, though somewhat less boxy, profile. Either way, none inspire me so much generally. I have admittedly enjoyed the punch of some domestic SBs, and a handful of white Bordeaux have come off decent enough, but… there is always… some but….
  
  Enter the Cheval Blanc… Blanc. The 2020 Petit Cheval is a white wine that manages to take Sauvignon Blanc and put a bow on it in a way that offers both lively flavors of grapefruit, lemon drop, grass, and white flowers, and also provides a depth of flavor and continuity of well curved scaffolding culminating in juice that is both exciting and classically cool. “Thanks Semillon!” …smartly added to this Sauvignon to provide a bit of depth and also obliterate the perception of the feline urate compound that plagues this varietal too often. As Cheval’s President Pierre Lurton calls it, “Pipi de chat.!”
  
  Here, the Petit Cheval is completely charming and suave. “If James Bond were a white wine…” Paired perfectly with an Osetra caviar and Kumomoto oyster dish.

  3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View LiteItOnFire's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/22/2023 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine:

  Dinner with Château Cheval Blanc and Château d’Yquem President Pierre Lurton (Anhelo Restaurant Phoenix, Arizona): Create story

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

View all 10 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.