NETJETS US VOLUME 9 2019

tasting notes
IN PRAISE OF
PROVENANCE
Once upon a time, the Cheval Blanc
winery put Saint-Émilion on the map,
and it continues to beguile with some
of Bordeaux’s best vintages
By Rob Crossan
W
hen oenophiles think
of Cheval Blanc, they
invariably think of a
certain year. For this
is the august château responsible for none
other than the ’47, the almost mythical wine
considered to be the greatest bordeaux ever
made – its voluptuous richness created by
an entirely accidental combination of highly
volatile acidity and residual sugar levels that
would, by today’s standards, be considered a
faulty batch.
“Whatever the fashions and times, it
has always been considered an exceptional
wine,” says Pierre-Olivier Clouet, Technical
Director at Cheval Blanc, a NetJets partner.
“It has an absolutely incredible aging
potential,” he continues by way of explaining
the winery’s outsized reputation. “Whatever
the season of Cheval Blanc, young, old or
very old, the wine is remarkable.”
Dating back to the 1830s, Cheval Blanc’s
uniqueness lies in the fact that its location, in
the Saint-Émilion appellation on the right
banks of the Gironde estuary, is actually
prime merlot territory. The unusually high
amount (49%) of cabernet franc is part of
what makes Cheval Blanc such a truly
distinctive wine.
Long considered to be little more than a
backwater for vin de table, Saint-Émilion’s
reputation was singlehandedly transformed
by Cheval Blanc during the 19th and early
20th century. The winery put the region on
the map when it won a gold award at the
Paris World Fair in 1878, and, then almost
half a century later, its 1921 vintage created,
for the first time, a truly international
demand.
The dizzying upward trajectory from
local obscurity to global adulation was set in
motion by Jean Laussac-Fourcaud. The son-
64 NetJets