TN Domaine de Chevalier 1983

Sadly last Friday at lunch it was corked, so opened a second bottle tonight. I have long been a lover of this property, and with the notable exception of 1982, they made extraordinary complex wines in the 1970s and 1980s. It is interesting how much the 1982 effected their reputation. Previous to that, they seemed to be like a Yogi Berra pronouncement, “Everybody knew they were underrated.” Subsequently less so, and the wines, despite being extremely good, languished unloved on retailer shelves.

So to the 1983.
Color: beautiful crimson, barely edged with brown.
Nose: unusual. Still fresh, with bright red fruit, cigar box, leather and a slight but very addictive note of camphor. Complex and lovely.
Mouth: by now, there was a serious piece of Flannery ribeye in front of me, and this Proved to be a brilliant pairing. It’s not an opulent wine, but instead there is a fresh slightly angularity to it. Great acidity, which worked well with the beef’s marbled fat and minerality; ultimately the aged steak and the aged wine seemed to love each other, and piled extra layers of complexity upon each other.

Scores: DDC 1983: 95
Flannery steak 98

Nice!

Thanks, Mark. Great note on a great wine.

Dry aged steak and a mature DdC does sound like a pretty perfect pairing; nice note.

Mark, do you know what happened with the 82, and what is it like?

It was damaged by hail in an era where grapes were not sorted. It is very nasty; I did a DDC vertical a year or so back, and had been told how bad it was, so pretasted a bottle, and just took it out of the tasting. My remaining bottle went to a friend who runs a wine class, so he could show what hail tainted wine tastes like.

Thanks. Do you know if there are good and bad lots? There are some very good notes on CT, including Salil.

Could be: I was talking to one of the Bernards who owns DDC, who shuddered when I mentioned the vintage.

I enjoy Chevalier and I’m glad it’s underrated so the price isnt too high.

Thx for the TN