2022 Cheval Blanc
Buying options
Tasting Notes
Cheval Blanc is extraordinary in 2022. Although it was the warmest ever growing season according to their records, Pierre-Olivier Clouet feels that the fact it was hot and dry from the beginning allowed the vines to manage their reserves – comparing it to running a marathon. While the final wine has the highest pH they’ve ever seen (3.86pH), it shows an amazing sense of freshness that doesn’t match the numbers. The nose proffers lifted, floral and fresh, herbaceous aromatics, with a vibrant, crunchy-fruited intensity. The palate is almost ethereal, with a weightlessness that is found in all the most masterful wines this year – but behind that body is layer upon layer of complexity and flavour. The tannins are sweet yet almost unbelievably fine-boned, creating a sense of delicacy. A modest 13.9% alcohol, the wine is 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in 100% new oak as normal. As one of our team said, this is like “a caged tiger” – combining power and elegance, just waiting to be released… bravo!
Critic Scores
Average Score
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
I was able to taste the 2022 Château Cheval Blanc in its individual components as well as a final blend, which is incredibly insightful when trying to understand a young barrel sample. The final blend is 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon (which is similar to the 2010), and as always, it's resting in new barrels. A deep, concentrated, structured Cheval Blanc, it has beautiful cassis, violets, flowers, and chocolate-driven aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied, concentrated, structured 2022 that stays tight, focused, and firm on the palate, with very little in the way of baby fat, yet the tannins are fine and polished. With a stacked mid-palate and a great finish, this masculine, structured, dense, powerful 2022 is going to need a decade or more of bottle age, but it should be brilliant.
The 2022 Cheval Blanc is a blend of 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon and it has a deep garnet-purple color. It erupts from the glass with an intense perfume of violets, rose oil, and licorice, leading to a vibrant, fruity core of juicy blueberries, fresh blackberries, redcurrant preserves, and raspberry coulis, plus a waft of cinnamon stick. Medium-bodied, the palate begins fragrant and opulent, textures and flavors melting in the mouth like Turkish Delight, leading to a generous core of juicy black, blue, and red berry layers, supported by super-fine, silt-like tannins, finishing very long, minerally and refreshing. So graceful, so singular, so Cheval.
The 2022 Cheval Blanc is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. Deep, seamless and striking in its beauty, the 2022 possesses pedigree to burn. Readers will find a sumptuous wine, but there’s plenty of tannin lurking beneath all of that intensity. In fact, the 2022 is the most tannic Cheval since 2010. The aromatics are surprisingly vibrant for a wine from a warm, dry year. The wine's energy is palpable. The 100% new oak is not all perceptible, which is another sign of top-notch balance. Time in the glass brings out a whole range of exotic Franc notes, followed by blood orange, red fruit, mind and dried herb touches. The 2022 includes 17% press wine (compared to the 11% or so that is typical), but as I have noted in my comments elsewhere in this report, the press lots were of high quality in 2022 because the winemaking was gentle. Once again, Cheval Blanc represents a pinnacle of excellence. Readers should note there is no Petit Cheval in 2022.
Related articles
About the producer
Ch. Cheval Blanc is one the finest producers in Bordeaux. The Saint-Emilion estate’s Cabernet Franc-dominant wines are consistently among the top wines of the vintage.