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
For some years, Chevalier has employed two distinguished consultants: Professor Denis Dubourdieu of Bordeaux University, and Stéphane Derenoncourt, who earned his spurs at Canon-la-Gaffelière and La Mondotte. Dubourdieu no doubt surveys and maintains the classical purity of the white wine, but Derenoncourt has encouraged non-Bordelais practices such as pigeage for the red wine. Walkways above the steel tanks facilitate manual punching down, which, Bernard is convinced, breaks up and moistens the floating cap more evenly than any other method. Another feature of the red wine, since 1996, is that the must is mechanically concentrated to reduce the volume by between 3 and 10 per cent. This concentration is done with extreme care, since any negative characteristics in the must, such as vegetal aromas, will be concentrated, too. Because of the expansion of the vineyard in 1989, and the replanting of various parcels, the average age of the red vines is only around 20 years. This paucity of very old vines justifies the use of concentration to increase the grip and structure of the wine and can increase the potential alcohol of some parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon from around 11.5% to 12%. There is no pumping of the must into the tanks. The fermentation is quite prolonged, at up to around 32°C (89.6°F) in temperature. After pressing, the wine is aged around 18 months in roughly 50 per cent new oak, with about 30 per cent of the malolactic fermentation taking place in new barrels. There is usually a light fining and filtration before bottling.
Less than half the production finds its way into the grand vin, the rest being released under the second label of L’Esprit de Chevalier. This, too, is explained by the relative youth of the vineyards. Any wine that seems in any way dilute or stringy or vegetal is swiftly declassified – which is not to say that L’Esprit regularly exhibits those characters!
Comparing reds and whites
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