Love for Domaine Chevalier

In love with these wines. What else from Pessac is similar at this level?

At higher levels?

Update: red not white

My fav from 2016 vintage was Carmes HB

Had a 2005 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc last night. Wonderful, very fresh and still young.

Chateau Haut Bailly.

Also, try the 2014 Chateau Les Carmes Haut Brion. Total Wine has it for $60 still.

Now if you wanna go really high end, La Mission Haut Brion. Game changer.

La Louviere can be a great value. In the mid-tier I’ve liked Malartic-Lagraviere.

In white or in red?

In white there are not many competitors on this level … the 2016 blanc was stunning when tasted a month ago.

Haut Brion, La Mission HB, Pape Clement, Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Fieuzal (but not always …), that´s it …

On a lower level: Carbonnieux, Latour-Martillac, Malartic-Lagraviere … (sometimes Olivier)
still lower, but recommended: Haut-Bergey, Clos Floridene, La Louviere

In red there are more good producers …

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Thanks everyone. Looking for reds.

We did a tour/tasting there in April. Nice people, nice wine

Current DDC tends to be less distinctive than in years past, thanks to its consultant, Dererencourt. The wines are still very good, but lack that terroir complexity I find in older wines. Haut Bailly is a better substitute. Cheap but good is Malartic La Graviere. If you like a more modern feel, then Smith Haut Lafitte.

To be honest, for me, the wines of DDC are way below the quality of their wines of the past. They were magnificent, very close to first growth quality. We did a vertical a couple of years back, 1953 to 1988, and it was revelation. The reason there is relatively little older DDC around is that the people at the tasting scooped up every older wine they could find, and continue to look for them.

Yes and yes. Current DDC is a good wine, but it is pretty soulless (the red). And I would say “shhhh” now too on how good back vintages of DDC are, except there’s virtually none to be found so there’s no secret to protect.

Couhins Lurton has been a good source of value red and white, Haut Bergey for red, and Les Carmes is climbing in price since the 2016 vintage. Loved the 2014 Alfert mentions.

I haven’t seen Branon mentioned, obviously Haut Brion and La Mission are the pinnacle.

I love both red and white Domaine de Chevalier. Usually their white is as good and can be even better than their red. FWIW, 2018 is the best vintage for red ever produced at DDC.

Because you asked about other Pessac Leognan wines, you might want to peruse this page and read about any of the other top chateaux in the appellation. Just follow the links.

I looked at your scores for older DDCs, and saw that your highest score was 93. With all due respect, it sort of makes your declaration about 2018 somewhat absurd. It seems that as with other terroir driven older wines, you just don’t seem to understand or appreciate them.

I could understand and not say anything if you hadn’t couched your pronouncement that the 2018 “is the best vintage ever…” in such objective terms. Yes, of course it’s obvious to anybody reading your note that it is your opinion, but at the same time it comes across as so definitive that it really did raise hackles.

The wine was made by the same team that made them for the last few years, and I have never tasted anything to suggest that any wine made them could approach the quality of some of the greats of yesteryear. And you can, and knowing you, you probably will say I have not tasted it, but I have tried every vintage to 2016, and without some evidence that there have been major changes in winemaking, I am totally confident in saying that in my opinion, it cannot possibly be the greatest wine ever made at the Domaine.

One day, if you come to New York, I will happily open bottles of the extraordinary 1953, the brilliant 1959, and even one from a minor vintage the 1981. Your opinion will probably not change, as we have very different palates, but I would like you to have the chance to see how utterly brilliant is the underlying terroir of DDC.

What an inane and arrogant post Mark. Seriously? We don’t have the same taste. And that’s just fine. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

I taste a lot of older DDC with Olivier Bernard yearly. I’ve tasted them back to 1929, which was earlier this year. So I know the older and younger vintages quite well.

There is no doubt that the wines coming from DDC are better than ever today. Don’t take my word for it. Taste it. Or you could ask the owner, Olivier Bernard. He knows the wines reasonably well. He agrees with me and I think so does every important journalist.

Olivier sells wine, what do you expect him to say?

Can we all agree 2014 strikes the balance? And it’s still cheap! Sub-$60.

Have you ever spoken with Olivier? Yes he has wine to sell. And with some owners, I take what they say with a grain of salt.

I find Olivier refreshingly honest in his views. If you haven’t ever chatted with him, if you go to a UGC function, try and spend a few minutes with him. He’s equally interesting, candid and charming.

FWIW… 14 is nice at DDC. But 15, 16 and 18 are all better. For the slight uptick, those later vintages are better buys than the 2014.

The 1924 is the best DDC ever.

KEITH LEVENBERG WROTE:
99 points
August 8, 2012 - Instant Graves goodness, no doubt about where this one is coming from. Such detailed, complex aromatics - mixing smokiness with something mealy along with the enticing scent of something flambéeing in a pan. All of that and more show up on the palate which billows with smoke as if the wine had just set up a barbecue pit in your mouth. The material here is so ethereal it’s almost incorporeal, feels like a direct transmission of Graves with the wine itself barely there as a physical medium.

Yes I do know Olivier very well, ever since I started going to Bordeaux regularly in the early 1990s. I agree with you that he is one of the nicest people in all of Bordeaux. He also uses Dererencourt, and the wines are not as good as they were in years past.

Yes we have different palates, and I am delighted you are not losing sleep over it. I remember the Pavie 1999 and Magdelaine 1998 which we tasted together in Bordeaux. All the subtlety of the Magdelaine completely escaped you, instead you told me I was wrong for not liking the Pavie.

That is not to say you can pronounce whatever the Hell you like as being the best ever from this property. What I objected to was how often you taste without understanding. As for arrogance, it was precisely your arrogant and your definitive post that got my hackles up and my resulting response.

I suggest you actually taste the wine before you comment on it or disagree with someone that has.

You’re arrogant because you have zero reference points to agree or not.

The difference here is that i have actually tasted the wine more than once, 2-3 times. In total I’ve taste about 40 vintages of DDC. And yes, that allows me to provide an opinion on 2018.

As I mentioned earlier, i am happy to share the same view as the owner of DDC and I believe every major critic out there. But knock yourself out talking about something you have no idea of.