Wine Advisor
Cheval Blanc 1985
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Description
Château Cheval Blanc, a 1er Grand Cru Classé (A) is unquestionably the leading estate in St. Emilion. It is located in the north-west of the St. Emilion appellation, bordering Pomerol. Cheval Blanc obtained its first medal at the 1862 Universal Exhibition in London. In fact, a representation of this bronze medal is found on the château’s present-day label. Cheval Blanc won their first gold medal at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris, and this new distinction also appeared on the label. In 1886, Cheval Blanc won a second gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Antwerp. Reflecting this series of successes and a wine well on the way to achieving international recognition, a château was built on the estate.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at Cheval Blanc dinner at The Ledbury. This is simply a gorgeous Cheval Blanc. This is the third or fourth time that I have enjoyed the company of the ’85 this year. It sports a deep garnet colour. The nose is divine: precocious ripe raspberry, wild strawberry, maraschino cherry with stunning delineation. The palate has a seamless texture with a caressing sensual mouthfeel that has more in common with Romanee Saint Vivant than Saint Emilion. It is such an effortless wine that you almost overlook its power, purring like a vintage Bentley. It makes the ’82 look ordinary alongside. Tasted November 2010.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
I clearly underrated the 1985, which has improved significantly in the bottle. The dark garnet color with no signs of amber is followed by an explosive bouquet offering blackcurrant, truffle, herb, and licorice scents. Opulent and layered, with lavish amounts of succulent fruit, this medium to full-bodied wine is showing well. The finish is long and deep. Anticipated maturity: Now-2006. Last tasted, 6/93.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
This has always been one of the best Cheval Blancs and here it simply hypnotized the audience of diners at “The Square”. A slight tawny rim. The nose is nothing less than captivating with touches of wild strawberry, espresso, Morello and mint that is just so seamless. The palate is brilliantly balanced with that natural sense of beauty that is so intoxicating. Fabulous. Tasted October 2007.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 1985 Cheval Blanc has long been one of my favorite wines of the decade for the estate. It has a fragrant, heady bouquet that can floor you at several paces, an intoxicating brew of meaty dried red fruit, clove, leather and wild heather, the intensity just slightly down from the 1982. There is a sensuality on the nose that continues through to the palate. It is a beautifully balanced wine, one not quite as fleshy as a decade ago with a gaminess that has become more accentuated by time. There is so much dimension to this Cheval Blanc, although like the 1982, I suspect that it will be surpassed by the 1990 in years to come. Tasted February 2014.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Medium garnet-brick colored, the 1985 Cheval Blanc sashays out of the glass with provocative notes of sandalwood, cinnamon stick, cardamom, dried lavender and wilted roses over a core of new leather, cigar box, prunes, raisin cake and dusty soil. Medium-bodied, soft and silken textured, it has tons of mature, melt-in-your-mouth flavors and a very long exotic spice-laced finish.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Slight tawny rim. An opulent palate, very rich with bundles of ripe, fleshy fruit: fat and hedonistic. Complex. Layered with cherry, raspberry and just about perfect balance. Saturated tannins. Divine. An odd bottle in July 2005. This wine was out of sorts, the nose far more subdued that I recall. Redcurrant, strawberry and tobacco, lacking the lift I expected. The palate is well-balanced, classically lined and fleshy with good acidity. Some coarseness on the mid-palate with a meaty finish. I do not think this bottle is representative, it does not have that joie-de-vivre of previous bottles, so I'm treating this as an anomaly. Tasted July 2005.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
A stunning perfumed nose of mint, cherry, a touch of savoury biscuits, coffee beans with exceptional definition. The palate displays an ethereal balance, wonderful definition with a sumptuous cashmere texture. So natural and refined with red cherries and a touch of redcurrant and bitter chocolate towards the finish. Bordeaux does not get much better than this. Tasted September 2007.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
A rather seductive style of Cheval Blanc that has been delicious from its youth, this wine continues to develop beautifully, and although it seems to have attained full maturity, the wine shows plenty of sweet plum, mocha, coffee, and black currant fruit intermixed with some menthol, chocolate, and cola. The wine is lush, medium to full-bodied, very soft, and ideal for drinking now and over the next 5-7 years. Last tasted, 11/02.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Fully mature, but capable of lasting another 10-15 years, this flamboyantly scented wine (jammy black fruits, licorice, Asian spices, herbs, grilled meats) is a lusciously rich, opulent, medium to full-bodied, fat and juicy style of Cheval Blanc that seems to get better and better every time I taste it. Like so many Cheval Blancs, it has the uncanny ability to put on weight in the bottle. Anticipated maturity: Now-2005. Last tasted 1/98
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 1985 Cheval Blanc has always been one of the most seductive of releases from the estate during that decade. Here it has that unmistakable highly perfumed bouquet with red berry fruit meddling with sandalwood, leather, briary and dried rose petals. It gains intensity in the glass, blossoms as the minutes go by. Perhaps here the fruit is more pure than the 1983 Cheval Blanc, more vivid. The palate is medium-bodied and perfectly balanced, underpinned by expressive Cabernet Franc that drives this along. I detect that it has lost a little of its flesh and corpulence on the finish, perhaps the first signs that it has just passed its peak? It remains a glorious, sensual Cheval Blanc, nonetheless - a consummate performer. Tasted March 2015.
Reviewed by: Ian d'Agata
(49 h/h): Very bright red. Ripe red cherry, plums macerated in alcohol and a floral element on the delicate nose. Then rich, ripe and dense in the mouth, with strongly saline, persistent flavors of dark berries, spice cake, leather and cocoa. There's lovely sweetness to this wine, but also a slightly funky hint of earthiness at the back that falls just short of gamey. Finishes fleshy and long, with slightly drying tannins. Still, this is a lovely medium-bodied, softer style of Cheval Blanc that is a joy to drink. Though there was less water stress on the Right Bank than on the Left in 1985, Pierre Lurton told me that the hints of game (which he felt were there) and earthiness suggest a dry year. The year actually featured a cool and humid spring, followed by a rainy but warm July, then a dry, warm August. The harvest was late (October 1-17), allowing the estate to take advantage of the ideal September weather conditions.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 1985 Cheval Blanc has always been one of the picks of the vintage for what was a fecund decade for the Saint-Émilion. This example shows similarly to previous bottles. It has a fragrant bouquet with sandalwood, clove and chestnut, maybe here even a touch of brettanomyces? It is only slight. The palate is beautifully balanced with melted tannin. The Cabernet Franc in full flight – hints of bell pepper and cedar, a surfeit of fruit. Maybe it lacks the precision of more recent vintages but how can you resist its charm. Impossible! It is a wonderful wine, but I wonder...was its heyday around the turn of the millennium? Tasted blind at Chez Brunce lunch.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Medium red, with a hint of amber at the rim. Pungent, highly complex nose combines redcurrant, autumn leaves, sweet tobacco, smoked meat, truffle and mint. Dense and silky, with a firm spine of acidity giving the wine excellent penetration and vinosity. Impeccably balanced and sweet. Finishes firmly tannic, with superb subtle persistence. A particularly lovely '85, in the elegant style of the vintage. Drink now through 2015.
About the Producer
Château Cheval Blanc is a highly lauded wine estate in the Saint-Émilion region of northeast Bordeaux. Classified with the top ranking of Premier Grand Cru Classé A, it is regarded by many as one of the greatest wines of the appellation – if not, the greatest. It is certainly the most famous Cabernet Franc-based wine in the world, albeit often alongside very similar levels of Merlot. Typically, the "grand vin" (the estate's eponymous wine) is lush and full bodied with great weight of fruit. It tends to require ten years of bottle age and the best vintages can last half a century or more. The second wine of the estate is Le Petit Cheval. The vineyard is located in the northwest of the region, bordering Pomerol (La Conseillante is a neighbor) and consists of 39 hectares (96 acres) divided into 45 plots. There is an unusually large amount of Cabernet Franc planted – about 49 percent – with 47 percent Merlot and four percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The unusual planting proportions reflect the terroir; most vineyards in the region are either clay or gravel-based over impermeable sedimentary rock, but Cheval Blanc is unique in having a patchwork of soils with the two types in roughly equal proportions. The clay soils provide base wines with velvety tannins, while those from gravel soils are more aromatic and elegant. Vines have been grown since the 14th Century at this spot but the vineyard as it is known today took shape in the 19th Century when the core plots were added to by purchases from the nearby Figeac estate. Subsequent replantings established the atypical half-Merlot, half-Cabernet Franc proportions. Cheval Blanc gained its first medal at the 1862 Universal Exhibition in London – the first of a series of successes building its reputation and achieving price levels comparable to the Médoc first growths, which paved the way for a château to be built on the estate. In the first classification of Saint-Émilion wines in 1955, Cheval Blanc was awarded the highest possible rating and remains a Premier Grand Cru Classé A. In 1998, after 166 years of continuous family ownership, Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury goods firm LVMH, and the late Baron Albert Frère (a Belgian billionaire investor) jointly purchased the estate. The spectacular new cellar opened in 2011, with 52 concrete vats (replacing stainless steel) of differing sizes corresponding to different vineyard plots. The grand vin spends 16 to 18 months in new oak barrels from a variety of cooperages.
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