Château Cheval Blanc 1985 Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Vines have been cultivated at Château Cheval Blanc for centuries, but the modern estate took shape after Jean-Jacques Ducasse bought its core in 1832. Over the next two decades, parcels from Château Figeac formed a thirty-nine-hectare property; the Cheval Blanc name first appeared in 1852. Jean Laussac-Fourcaud’s replanting, completed in 1871, paired Merlot and Cabernet Franc in almost equal proportions. At the edge of Pomerol, gravel and clay sit together in roughly equal measure across 39.5 hectares divided into fifty-five individually managed plots. The winery designed by Christian de Portzamparc and inaugurated in 2011 contains sixty-seven concrete vats in fourteen sizes, allowing each plot to be vinified separately before blending. Cheval Blanc withdrew from the Saint-Émilion classification in 2021. Its agroforestry programme, set out that year, brings together orchards, hedges, animals, flower gardens and beehives with covered, unploughed soils.