1975 - Cheval Blanc, Saint-Emilion

(21.5 h/h; 13% alcohol): 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.

This wine is very complex aromatically, but if the bouquet deserves a 90-point score, the flavors are marginally disappointing. A big nose of spice box, cedar, black fruits, mineral, and almost an espresso-like note is followed by a somewhat tannic, medium-bodied wine with astringent tannin and a tough finish. It is showing considerable amber at the edge and probably needs to be drunk up, although it is certainly in no danger of falling apart, but I suspect it will become more and more desiccated as the wine ages. Last tasted, 12/02.