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Wine Description
The Story
Grapes from a single hectare planted with 80% de Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon are fermented with surgical precision by the highly-skilled team from Domaine de Chevalier.
The wine, barrel-aged on fine lees, is a crystal-clear with a slightly golden colour.
The lively aromas of Sauvignon Blanc grown on this terroir feature tropical fruit with citrus overtones. We enjoyed this wine’s aromas for a surprisingly long time before tasting it! The immediate impression on the palate is of fresh fruity, suave opulence without any heaviness. Delicate acidity enhances the structure of this generous wine and prolongs the pleasure on the aftertaste for several seconds.
The lovely balance and mineral overtones of this dry white wine reflect the superb terroir and great respect for the fruit.
The newly-renovated cellar at Lespault-Martillac was designed for winemaking on a par with the greatest estates in Bordeaux. That is because the terroir deserves it! We introduced small 60 and 80 hectolitre vats filled by gravity flow in order to fine tune the final blend to reflect our vineyard management system.Extraction is adapted to the characteristics of the vintage and done with utmost care to respect the purity of the fruit.
At Lespault-Martillac, like at Chevalier, the white wine is fermented entirely in barrel on its lees, with regular bâtonnage (stirring with a stick). Our priority for the red wine is to maintain the grapes whole and unbruised, especially the skins, which are extremely important to the quality of the tannic texture. Pumping over and pigeage (punching down the cap) are done manually. I would like to point out that the red wine is also aged on the lees for the first few months…
Vintage 2020
In Bordeaux, the heat led to early flowering. Additionally, this led to an early harvest after a very hot summer. As a starting point, there is great maturity in the grapes, and we can expect a more opulent vintage than in recent years.
This year's summer was the hottest since 1959, but the rain fell at just the right time during the growing season. The harvest took place two weeks before the norm and will produce grapes with high alcohol potential and the lowest acidity since the 2003 vintage. As they say in Bordeaux: “It was a good and extreme growing season which , hopefully, also produces great wines.”