2016 Le Petit Cheval Blanc

Château Cheval Blanc is a Premier Grand Cru Classe A of St.-Emilion. Cheval Blanc won medals at prestigious international exhibitions in London and Paris in the mid-19th century and those medals are still depicted on Cheval Blanc bottle labels. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that among the most famous wines of Bordeaux, “Cheval Blanc probably has the broadest window of drinkability. It is usually delicious when first bottled, yet it has the ability in the top years to gain weight and last.” Parker also notes that Cheval Blanc typically includes more Cabernet Franc than other Bordeaux, another possible key to its unique style. Located in St.-Emilion, the château includes 91.4 acres of vineyards planted in 58% Cabernet Franc and 42 % Merlot. The average age of the vines is 45 years. Some 100,000 bottles of Château Cheval Blanc are produced each year. The Managing Director of the estate is Pierre Lurton, a distinguished winemaker and estate director who also is President and CEO of Château d'Yquem.

Bordeaux is the world’s most famous fine-wine producing region. Even non-wine drinkers recognize the names of Bordeaux’s celebrated wines, such as Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild. Located near the Atlantic coast in southwest France, the region takes its name from the seaport city of Bordeaux, a wine trading center with an outstanding site on the Garonne River and easy access to the Atlantic. Like most French wine regions, Bordeaux’s first vineyards were planted by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago, then tended by medieval monks. Aristocrats and nobility later owned the region’s best estates and today estates are owned by everyone from non-French business conglomerates to families who have been proprietors for generations. Bordeaux has nearly 280,000 acres of vineyards, 57 appellations and 10,000 wine-producing châteaux. Bordeaux is bifurcated by the Gironde Estuary into so-called “right bank” and “left bank” appellations. Bordeaux’s red wines are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It also makes white wines of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. There are several classification systems in Bordeaux. All are attempts to rank the estates based on the historic quality of the wines.