Chateau Cheval Blanc 1975

JEB DUNNUCK: "Most 1975s are fully mature and best drunk up, and the 1975 Chateau Cheval Blanc falls into that category. Complex and nuanced, with some dried fruits, cedar wood, forest floor and earthy aromas and flavors, this medium-bodied beauty has completely resolved tannin and a clean, balanced texture. Get it while the getting is good."

ANTONIO GALLONI: "Bright ruby-red with a hint of garnet. Enticing floral nose offers very pure raspberry and red cherry aromas, complicated by tobacco and bay leaf notes. Then sweet, dense and smooth in the mouth, with rich red cherry, plum and peppery flavors. Finishes with still chewy but noble tannins and a trace of heat. A great Cheval Blanc that is more massive than usual, showing plenty of concentrated, complex flavors and a wonderfully rich texture. In this vintage, Cheval Blanc benefited from its earlier ripening soils, which allowed the grapes to be harvested at optimal phenolic ripeness, something that eluded other Bordeaux estates that may have picked too early. The harvest took place from September 26 to October 8. This was the first vintage of Cheval Blanc ever sold en primeur."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "A classical and very typical/traditional vintage of Cheval kindly served at the château in the very room where I was once served it blind by Jacques Hébrard, the old owner. It was not flattered by the cherry cheesecake accompaniment but is still a beautiful, langorous, very persistent wine. The fruit is gently fading and there was a light aroma of digestive biscuits. By no means heavy but well balanced."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Fully mature and quite charming for the vintage, truffle, plum, black raspberry, dark cherry, forest floor and tobacco notes create the perfume. Sweet, cherry fruit, earth, spice box and soft textures, with a slight bit of rusticity are found in the finish."