Wine Club
Chevalier, the white knight and the red
Possibly the finest white wine of all France, Chevalier Blanc is remarkable for having a little known cousin, a red Chevalier that stands up to many of the fine wines of the Médoc
Yet, by this time, Ricard was no longer the owner. In 1983, that perennial French problem of squabbling heirs made the sale of Chevalier inevitable. The purchaser was the Bernard family, better known for the brandy they produced than for wine. Olivier Bernard, at the age of 23, was installed as new co-director of the domaine. Remarkably, Claude Ricard stayed in place, and the two men worked amicably together until Ricard gracefully bowed out in 1988. In the 20-odd years that have passed since Olivier Bernard’s arrival, he has enhanced the reputation of Chevalier even further but done nothing to change the wine’s character. Chevalier remains Chevalier.
The estate itself is physically unremarkable. Located just northwest of Léognan in the corner of what is today the Pessac-Léognan appellation, the vines stretch in a barely undulating mass from the road to the modest château and less modest winery. And just beyond the buildings, and fringing the vineyards themselves, are the surly pinelands of the Landes, which ripple from here to the wild Atlantic shore. There were vines here from the 1770s, but the estate began to win recognition after the Ricard family bought it in 1865 and expanded the property to 15 hectares. Claude Ricard proved an exemplary steward, installing drainage in 1962 and initiating a policy of selective harvesting normally reserved for sweet wines such as Sauternes.
Today there are some 35 hectares under vine, of which only five are white. The red vines are planted to 64 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 per cent Merlot, 3 per cent Cabernet Franc and (making its debut in 2003) 3 per cent Petit Verdot. The white vines are 70 per cent Sauvignon Blanc and 30 per cent Semillon. They are planted to a density of 10,000 vines per hectare, which may be routine in the Médoc but is still very much the exception in the Graves. Domaine de Chevalier is not organic, but close: the soil is ploughed, no herbicides are used and any fertilisers used are organic rather than chemical. The soil is gravelly black sand of up to 1m (3ft) in depth, over a rich subsoil of clay mixed with sandstone. Yields range from 30 to 40 hectolitres per hectare (hl/ha) in an average vintage. The main problem posed by the location is frost: wind machines and smudge-pots are clearly visible in the vineyard. The surrounding woodlands shelter the vines, which is an advantage, but also make them more susceptible to frost.
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