1998 Cheval Blanc

I seriously underestimated this wine, as I have often tended to do with Cheval Blanc. A potentially immortal example that has gained significant weight since it has been bottled, this blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot has a saturated purple color and a glorious nose of menthol, plums, mulberries, new saddle leather, cocoa, and vanilla. Remarkably fuller-bodied than I ever remembered it young, with an amazingly seamless texture and tremendous concentration and extract, this full-bodied yet gorgeously pure and elegant wine is impeccably balanced and certainly one of the all-time great Cheval Blancs. If it continues to improve as much as it has over the last three years since bottling, this wine will certainly rival the 2000, 1990, and 1982. Jan 2003, www.robertparker.com, Drink: 2003-2030

Our special guest for the night was administrator Pierre Lurton, and one of his favorite vintages under his impeccable guidance at Cheval Blanc is the 1998, a wine that has gone from strength to strength. I rated it in the mid- to upper-90s early on, but it seems to have hit the magical three-digit perfection. It offers extraordinary, exuberant aromatics ranging from truffle to forest floor to floral notes intermixed with blackcurrant and black raspberry. It is an incredibly complex, full-bodied, opulent wine that seems to be in mid-adolescence and capable of lasting another 25 to 30 years. The 1998 was a spectacular vintage in Pomerol and Saint-Émilion, and to a lesser extent in Graves, and all three of those appellations eclipsed anything that was made in the Médoc. Mar 2017, www.robertparker.com

On this occasion, the 1998 Château Cheval Blanc could not match the stellar performance of the 1990, though it is still a great wine. It has a very pure, svelte bouquet with black cherries, camphor, creme de cassis and sage aromas. Giving it ten minutes to open in the glass, there is an attractive mint note that becomes ever more pronounced. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins cloaked in glossy red cherry and strawberry fruit. There is great backbone and structure to this Cheval Blanc with a very long finish that fans out gloriously. I'd be inclined to give it two, three, maybe even four more years in bottle before it reaches its peak. Mar 2015, www.robertparker.com, Drink: 2019-2045