1934 Château Cheval Blanc;
Chr. Stausholm bottling (Denmark) and cork stated Stausholm as well. Top shoulder fill. Garnet with brick/ orange rim. Coffee, anise, leather, redcurrant's, cigars, cassis, hint of herbs, sweet tones and ripe notes. Fresh acidity, tannins nearly gone, rich texture, elegant even so, very mature, long length. 94
Broadbent: Arguably the finest, certainly- in my experience- one of the most reliable of the 34's. First noted rich, delicate, ethereal, exquisite, in 1978, and several admiring notes since, including a glowing coloured magnum in 1986, its beautiful bouquet, ripe, subsiding gently but not decayed. At best *****
Hello Christer, Thank you for your excellent blog! I think I can speak for many of us in the wine-enthisuast community that you have a true asset here with your notes! I have a question for you: I recently acquired a 1945 Cheval Blanc from a friend, and it has the same label as your 1934. He says it was bottle by A. Delor, but I have not seen this label anywhere else except on your site. My initial impression was that it was fake, based on it's apparent uniqueness, but now seeing yours, I am not sure. Do you have info on this negociant?
ReplyDeleteMany Thanks!
Thanks for your kind words. This is a Danish bottling, and I suspect they got the labels back then from the negociant that they bought the wine from. But I have to admit I know too little about this part of the business, and I can find way too little information about it. Seems the few who may know keep tight on the info. I look for typicity of the estate and vintage when I taste wines like this. If it feels like a plausible quality for the vintage and estate, I regard it as the real thing. If it is a fake, at least they have faked something really good. I also read notes on the wines from people one knows have tasted many more older vintages than I have. There will always be uncertainties with older bottles, so one can never be 100 percent sure. The 1945 is spectacular, I hope your bottle will be so as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I have seen several bottles with similar labels of Cheval Blanc. Negoc or Danish bottlings may have similar labels with a bit more elaborate detailing well into the sixties. Cheval seems to have been late in estate bottlings only for a First Growth. I do not have an exact vintage, but I have never seen a 70's vintage other than estate labeled, but at least up to 64 with both labels.
ReplyDeleteThank you again! I have found the same to be true about Cheval and estate bottlings past the 70s. Keeping fingers crossed for the '45!
ReplyDeleteOne more question I have for you about this specific bottle: a wine expert friend of mine identified that my '45 Cheval Blanc is a "seamless" bottle, meaning one piece of glass. He mentioned that this style of bottle is definitely pre-1940's. Could it be that during the war years, that they re-used an older bottle?
ReplyDeleteCheers.
In Douro I heard from Niepoort that they used almost anything that was available because of glass shortage. I asked one of the top estates in Bordeaux about this, and the answer was that no, there were no shortage of bottles during the war as production was normally smaller and the wines were often bottled after the war, especially the 1945 vintage, and the glass shortage that might had been was at least over by then. But this was the answer from one estate.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! This seamless bottle was the primary piece of evidence that my friend used to identify my bottle as a fake... But I am still not convinced! The wine was mature, and delicious, so maybe that's what it's all about! Thank you again for this great discussion.
ReplyDeleteChristian