Domaine de Chevalier: vintages and prices, Pessac-Léognan

Vintages on the price list

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Two wines, one estate

Same estate, same team, two colours, both classified.

Domaine de Chevalier red

Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, a little Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. A red that is elegant rather than powerful, ready at around eight years, and lasting twenty-five and more.

Domaine de Chevalier white

Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, aged in barrel. One of the Bordeaux dry whites that age best: good from four years, it keeps for twenty.

A clearing in the pine forest at Léognan, the village of Carbonnieux and Malartic-Lagravière. The Bernard family, distillers, bought the estate in 1983; Olivier Bernard runs it. The Graves classification, drawn up in 1953 and revised in 1959, has sixteen châteaux, all now in Pessac-Léognan; each is classified for its red, its white, or both. The appellation's other châteaux are on the Pessac-Léognan wines page.

At Léognan, the single-block vineyard is surrounded by forest, with no immediate neighbour: gravel over a clay-gravel subsoil, planted at 10,000 vines per hectare. About 60 hectares of red and 7 of white. The forest warms the vines in summer but exposes them to frost; frost-protection towers have been in place since 1982. The 2008 red saw the latest harvest in the estate's history, running until 25 October. In 2014, sixty days of fine weather from 27 August ripened the crop, red and white alike. The 2020 white, from an early year, was picked from 25 August.

What to serve it with

The young white: oysters, seafood (what wine with oysters), grilled fish (what wine with fish).
The white at ten years and more: turbot with beurre blanc, poultry in a cream sauce (what wine with poultry), lobster.
The red: roast lamb (what wine with lamb), game birds for the older vintages (what wine with game).

Which vintage for which occasion

For a grand meal, the white with the fish then the red with the meat: one estate from start to finish. For Christmas Eve, see what wine with the Christmas menu. For a birthday, the birth year, if the table has it (birth-year vintage).

Is Domaine de Chevalier a classified growth?

Yes, a Graves classified growth for both its red and its white, since the 1953 classification revised in 1959. It is not part of the 1855 classification, which covered only the Médoc, Haut-Brion and the sweet wines.

Can a dry white wine really keep for twenty years?

This one, yes, like a few great Pessac-Léognan whites. As it ages, it loses the fresh fruit of Sauvignon and takes on notes of wax, honey and dried fruit. Serve it at 12 °C, no colder, and open it an hour before.

When should you drink a Domaine de Chevalier red?

Allow eight years before opening it and twenty-five years of good form, a little more in a great year, a little less in a weak year or in half-bottles; for the white, four to twenty years. The table applies this rule to each line; it is not a tasting note, and a badly stored bottle ages faster.

Are the prices shown the ones in the quote?

They are the guide prices from the price list, incl. VAT, per bottle of the format, delivery excluded. The quote confirms the price, the availability of each vintage and the shipping; the delivery rates give the lead times. For a vintage not in the table, the quote request is still open.