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
Despite the seeming homogeneity of the vineyard, there can be astonishing variations in maturation – as much as 15 days even within the same parcel. This is why the white-grape harvest can be spread over three weeks, with teams of harvesters returning to the same parcel up to five times. Defective bunches are removed; only fully ripe bunches are picked. To the best of my knowledge, no other domaine in Bordeaux, other than in Sauternes, practises this degree of selective harvesting for a dry wine. Grapes are picked on flavour and acidity levels, with pickers being exhorted to bring in only bunches that are fully ripe. Excessive acidity needs to be kept at bay.
‘Claude Ricard told me that in 1982 the vineyards were almost devastated by a frost in May,’ recalls Olivier Bernard. ‘All the affected bunches were removed, and what was eventually harvested was in effect the second crop, which of course lagged far behind in terms of maturation. The quantity harvested – a mere 7hl/ha – seemed ripe but, in fact, was so acidic that the wine was undrinkable for ten years.’ Well, not quite. I drank it in 1988, remarking on its high acidity and lack of roundness, but it was still a satisfying glass.
Such exacting procedures in the vineyard are very labour-intensive and, inevitably, costly. In 1991, a difficult year, the pickers spent 1,100 hours per hectare harvesting grapes.
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