JS96-97: So succulent and long on the compacted palate, this shows just enough clean ripe berries as well as cedar and chocolate. This has polished, energizing tannins with a lovely and thoughtful drive, the light austerity giving the wine a push in the finish. Only 12.8% alcohol. A blend of 46% merlot, 48% cabernet franc and 6% cabernet sauvignon.

JD94-96+: Comprised of 37 parcels on the estate and a blend of 48% Cabernet Franc, 46% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2024 Château Cheval Blanc will spend at least 18 months in new barrels. Classic Cheval Blanc Cabernet notes of cassis, spring flowers, graphite, and scorched earth all emerge on the nose, and this beauty is medium to full-bodied, has a beautiful mid-palate, the focused, elegant style of the vintage, and impressive concentration. It's an elegant, very classic Bordelaise vintage for this estate, and the wine will need just 4-6 years of bottle age and will evolve gracefully.

WA94-96: A blend of 48% Cabernet Franc, 48% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2024 Château Cheval Blanc is one of the stars of the vintage. Unwinding in the glass with notes of minty berries and plums mingled with violets, cigar wrapper and rose petals, it's medium-bodied, suave and complete, with a cool, layered core of fruit, beautifully integrated tannins and a long, aromatic finish. Pierre-Olivier Clouet and his team conducted an aggressive green harvest and also, exceptionally, used densimetric sorting to mitigate heterogenous maturity between and within bunches (a consequence of a protracted flowering), accepting losses to rot in pursuit of full maturity. Yields were 39 hectoliters per hectare at harvest, but some 34% of that was eliminated between sorting and press wine (which is never retained at Cheval Blanc). Of what fermented, however, 70% ended up in the grand vin.