Domaine de Chevalier’s Blanc is one of the two or three finest dry white wines consistently produced in the Bordeaux appellation, produced from 5 hectares of old-vine Sauvignon Blanc (70%) and Sémillon (30%) in the estate’s specific microclimate deep within the Pessac-Léognan forest. The 2021 vintage was described by James Suckling, in his Bordeaux en primeur report, as producing a wine of “98-99” barrel sample quality, with “a lengthy, layered and compact palate” of “dried lemon, clove, fennel, green-apple and cedar” and extraordinary length. This placed the 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc within the very top tier of the 2021 white wine campaign from any appellation, a recognition confirmed by the Vinfolio vintage roundup which described Suckling awarding only two wines in all of Bordeaux 2021 a score of 98-99: the Haut-Brion Blanc (which received the only Suckling 100 across all colours) and Domaine de Chevalier Blanc. The 2021 Bordeaux dry white vintage was exceptional across Pessac-Léognan, and the Domaine de Chevalier Blanc’s forest microclimate, which provides natural cooling in the warmest years while amplifying complexity in the freshest, was particularly well suited to the 2021 vintage’s conditions.

The 2021 growing season’s cold and challenging conditions produced white wines across Pessac-Léognan that all major critics described as among the finest produced in the appellation in the past two decades, combining natural mineral precision and freshness with the concentration that the forested estate’s old Sauvignon Blanc vines consistently provide. The 2020 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, offered elsewhere in this catalogue and confirmed at JS 99 / WA 97 / WE 97 / WS 95 / Decanter 96, provides a reference point for understanding the 2021’s potentially even higher critical ceiling from Suckling.

Domaine de Chevalier Blanc 2021 is among the most important and rare white wine acquisitions in this catalogue: a wine of outstanding individual character, produced in its finest recent vintage, from an estate whose tiny production ensures the most extreme competition for allocations among the finest European and Asian wine collections.

Pale gold with an extraordinary nose of dried lemon, clove, fennel, green apple, chalk mineral, flint and a distinctive forest herb complexity from the estate’s specific Pessac-Léognan microclimate. Full-bodied with exceptional natural freshness, remarkable concentration and a very long, mineral, layered finish of outstanding precision and complexity. Best from 2026 through 2045.

This is always an impressive white, with a lengthy, layered and compact palate. Lots of dried lemon, clove, fennel, green-apple and cedar. Flint and toast, too. Medium to full body. Very long. 70% sauvignon blanc and 30% semillon. - James Suckling