2016 Le Petit Cheval, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2016 Le Petit Cheval, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20168123565
 
2016 Le Petit Cheval, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Description

The nose is pleasantly aromatic with notes of red berry and florals, with crunchy, juicy raspberry. On the palate, there is a delicate freshness and a pure, lifted finish. Light with plenty of red fruit.

Blend: Merlot 62%, Cabernet Franc 38%

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90-92/100
The 2016 Le Petit Cheval is a blend of 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Franc from three parcels, representing 7% of the total production. Matured in 60% new oak, it has an attractive bouquet with raspberry preserve, pressed flowers and a touch of orange rind. The palate is medium-bodied with fine delineation and poise, a fine prickle of acidity, maybe a tad tight having just been wrenched from barrel but with fine salinity on the finish. Be advised to give this three or four years in bottle just to smooth out that slight rigidity on the finish.
Neal Martin - The Wine Advocate #230, 28th April 2017 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20
Light nose. Good savour and a little inkiness. Very far from a grand vin but a pretty blend. Racy. Pierre-Olivier Clouet sees Italian structure in this. Just a little skinny on the end. Drink 2021-2030.
Jancis Robinson - 13th April 2017 Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Cheval Blanc

Chateau Cheval Blanc

Château Cheval Blanc, a 1er Grand Cru Classé (A) is unquestionably the leading estate in St. Emilion. It is located in the north-west of the St. Emilion appellation, bordering Pomerol.

Cheval Blanc's vineyards (Merlot 39%, Cabernet Franc 57%, Malbec 3%, Cabernet Sauvignon 1%) enjoy a variety of soils: gravel, clay and sand, all underpinned by an impermeable sedimentary rock (`crasse de fer'). Fermentation and maceration last 4 weeks in stainless steel vats, followed by 18 months' maturation in new oak barrels.

Cheval Blanc produces the most famous Cabernet Franc-based wine in the world and present régisseur Pierre Lurton is amongst the most talented winemakers working in Bordeaux today. Cheval Blanc requires a minimum 10 years of bottle age and the best vintages can last for 50 years or more.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard - it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St.Emilion where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils - Cheval Blanc is the most famous Cabernet Franc wine in the world, with the final blend consisting of up to 65% of the grape.

Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape's herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgeil where growers such as Jacky Blot produce intense well-structured wines that possess excellent cellaring potential.

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