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
Chevalier is far better equipped now than it was in Ricard’s day. Bernard built a superb circular winery lined with stainless-steel tanks. When the grapes, red or white, arrive at the winery, they are sorted on a tapis de triage, and since 1999 the reds have been sorted a second time after destemming. There is no skin contact for the white grapes, which are pressed directly. Bernard likes their fermentation to start at around 18°C (64.4°F), so he chills the newly filled barrels in a cold chamber. There can be as many as 120 barrels, each of which is handled individually. Thus, if chaptalisation is required (adding sugar to increase alcohol content), each barrel is assessed and treated separately. Fermentation begins slowly with natural yeasts, and there is no malolactic fermentation. In the 1980s the wine would have spent only around five weeks on the lees, but today it remains in contact with the lees with bâtonnage for around 12 months. The risk of this procedure is that the wine can become too plump and broad, but the naturally high acidity of the Chevalier white means that, in practice, that is rarely a problem. And when the risk is high, as in 2003, the wine is taken off the lees much earlier.
White Chevalier remains in oak for around 18 months, far longer than most other white Bordeaux. But Olivier Bernard and his technical director Thomas Stonestreet are keen to avoid any overt oakiness in the wine. The purpose of this long oak-ageing is to give the wines weight, structure and texture, not woody flavours. The barrels are only lightly toasted, and the proportion of new oak does not exceed 30 per cent (although in the early 1990s the proportion was a bit higher). The barrels are often soaked in hot water before leaving the cooperage so as to get rid of any bitterness residing in the staves.
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