The 2020 Château Cheval Blanc is a powerful and complex wine from a challenging vintage, earning top scores across the board. With a blend of 65% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, it showcases intense black fruit, spice, and minerality, offering a rich, tannic structure and remarkable aging potential. Reviewers highlight its balance, depth, and long finish, making it one of the standout wines of the decade.

Inside Bordeaux | IB 100
Published: Feb, 2023
Drink: 2028-2050

Intense, indelible, with layer upon layer of blueberry, raspberry, pomegranate, fennel, liqourice, crayon, espresso, crushed rocks, just so much character and poise. The driest year at Cheval Blanc since 1959, with 71% of production from the 39ha estate in this wine, technical director Pierre Olivier Clouet. This continues to be bottled as Premier Grand Cru Classé A until the 2022 vintage, following its withdrawal from the ranking,which will make an interesting footnote for collectors I would imagine, but makes zero difference to the brilliance of what is in the bottle.

Jamessuckling,com | JS 98
Published: May 14, 2023

Lots of blueberries and flowers such as violets and crushed stone. This is very structured and muscular with minerally tannins that run the length of the wine. Very closed. Polished texture that gives it class and presence. This is one for the cellar. 65% merlot, 30% cabernet franc and 5% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2030.

Decanter | D 98
Published: Jan 3, 2023
Drink: 2028-2058

Satisfying, edgy and seductive. The 2019 was perhaps more openly charming at this point, but there is lovely attention to detail here with delicate floral aromas, blue fruit and liquorice aspects on the nose followed by a patina of flavours and textures on the palate. Rich and powerful, clearly concentrated but delivered subtly and carefully, not pushed too far. There's a clarity, precision and purity to the blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, with crushed stone saltiness, clove, aniseed and liquorice root. I loved the 2019 more at this stage but this has excellent potential for long ageing and will no doubt deliver unbridled enjoyment when it's ready.

Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 14.50%
Body: Medium
Grapes: 35% Cabernet Franc 5% Cabernet Sauvignon 65% Merlot

The Wine Advocate | RP 96
Published: Apr 6, 2023
Drink: 2027-2055

The 2020 Chateau Cheval Blanc wafts from the glass with aromas of mulberries, plums and cherries mingled with hints of rose petals, licorice, sweet spices and lilac. Full-bodied, broad and voluptuous, it's layered and fleshy, with a ripe core of fruit, sweet tannins and a long, expansive finish. While purists will gravitate toward the purer and more precise and perfumed 2019, the 2020 will appeal to readers who love the richest, most powerful expressions of Chateau Cheval Blanc.

One of Bordeaux's most complex terroirs, Cheval Blanc sits on the site of an ancient river delta, with (to generalize) clay-rich soils in the lower-lying parts where rivulets once flowed and gravel and sand elsewhere. This complexity is reflected, of course, in the resulting wine but also in how it is farmed and made, with thoughtful use of cover crops according to soil type and parcel-by-parcel vinification. A concerted effort is being made, moreover, to bring life back to the vineyard, with hedges of native species to act as wildlife corridors and fruit trees planted among the vines. The same attention to detail that's applied in the vineyards, for example with regard to developing and testing an in-house massal selection, is applied in the cellar, where cooperage trials are notable for their exigence. All of that shows in the glass. 

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 18
Published: Feb 14, 2024
Drink: 2029-2049

Tasted blind. Deep purplish crimson. Sweet, toasty, ripe and fresh black fruit. Deliciously aromatic. Succulent, polished, smooth and really generous and yet with lovely freshness on the finely tannic finish. Juicy, lively, long.

Chateau-cheval-blanc.com

Since it won its first medal, still featured on its labels, at the Universal Exhibition of London in 1862, Château Cheval Blanc has maintained its place as one of the world’s greatest wines. Its grace, alchemy and elegance are the incarnation of refined French culture, of unparalleled quality.

Château Cheval Blanc has been situated in the commune of Saint-Emilion for 200 years. It covers 39.5 hectares divided into 55 plots, each of which is different and unique. Each plot has its own characteristics according to its age, size and, in particular, its soil and grape variety. Each plot is vinified separately so that it can express its individuality fully before blending and so that it can contribute to the overall coherence of each vintage.

Château Cheval Blanc has always been managed with longevity in mind: all the particularities of this legendary Bordeaux have been preserved throughout the years – its terroir, grape varieties and style – whilst its qualities continue to become more refined and assertive.  Thanks to the mineral and vegetal heritage and increasingly rigorous know-how, Château Cheval Blanc has made a place for itself on the most prestigious tables across the globe for over a century and a half.

2020 TASTING NOTE
2020 was an extreme vintage with a very dry summer and a really hot weather during the harvest. The wines reflect perfectly these climatic conditions, with an intense, ripe nose and a powerful, dense tannic structure.

The aromas are typical of a warm vintage. Black fruit mingles with notes of garrigue and pepper. The minty freshness holds the aromatic ensemble well.
The attack is opulent. The power and density of the wine are remarkable, and the mouth lingers thanks to a rich and full tannin structure. The wine lengthens as it tightens to an impressive finish.

Blending: Merlot  65 % Cabernet Franc  30 % Cabernet Sauvignon 5 %