A quarter-century of Cheval Blanc

In late November I had the great pleasure of co-hosting a vertical of one of my favourite wines of all time, Château Cheval Blanc, the most consistent St-Emilion of all and arguably the most charming of the Bordeaux first growths.

It's interesting to note that while we think of Cheval as the one château in Bordeaux which is dominated by its preponderance of Cabernet Franc, in fact vintages such as 2000, 1999 and 1995 actually contained 53, 61 and 50 per cent of Merlot respectively – with the balance being made up virtually exclusively by Cabernet Franc.

When tasting the...