Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, 1983 – 2013
“It is respect for the values of the terroir, revealed by organic farming through the purity of the fruit, the choice of harvesting techniques, and vinification and ageing in barrel, that allow us to create a fine white wine for ageing, as only a few great terroirs in the world are able to do…”
– Olivier Bernard, Domaine de Chevalier, 2023
In September 2023 I accepted an invitation to visit Domaine de Chevalier for a privileged opportunity to taste forty vintages of the estate’s red wine, from Olivier Bernard’s first vintage in 1983 right up to the 2022 barrel sample. To read more, including all forty tasting notes, see my Domaine de Chevalier, 1983 – 2022 report.
But what of the white wine, for which the estate is also rightly famed? I think a tasting of forty vintages of the white alongside the red would have perhaps been a bit much for one day (although I would have given it a go – I am nothing if not dedicated to the cause) nevertheless Olivier proposed something different. On the evening before the grand tasting we gathered for a convivial dinner, with dishes prepared by Clémentine Cousseau of the two-star restaurant Relais de la Poste in Magescq, some 110 kilometres south of Domaine de Chevalier. Of course, some people might regard matching forty vintages to forty dishes somewhat excessive, so Olivier and Clémentine worked together to match just four older vintages of the domaine’s white wine (and, for variety, one red) with three courses.
In this report I provide my tasting notes on these wines (which unlike the grand tasting were served blind), plus a couple of others poured on the day, as well as a few details on the dishes served.
