1995 Domaine de Chevalier

La Trompette, established 2001, used to be a good local restaurant but lagged behind others owned by Nigel Platts-Martin, such as Chez Bruce, The Ledbury, The Glasshouse and The Square (the latter since sold and frankly a pale imitation of what used to be one of the capitals finest restaurants.) Located in Chiswick in West London, it literally lies round the corner from Hedone that Antonio recently reviewed. Refurbishment in 2013 saw La Trompette shut its doors and reopen with more ambition. Rob Weston, who had worked at La Gavroche and subsequently as Phil Howard’s right hand man at The Square for 15-years, took the menu to a completely different level. I am probably not the only person opining that La Trompette is the most consistent, well-priced, Michelin-starred restaurant in London and I say that as someone who has eaten there 30 or 40 times.

Assistant manager Remi Edange, like so many other Bordeaux insiders, describes 1997 as "un vin de degustation, pas speculation." Yields here, according to Edange, were a very low 30 hectoliters per hectare due to frost; the wine will be an 80/20 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Long-time International Wine Cellar readers may recall my notes on the 1993 Domaine de Chevalier tasted before and after it was pumped through a plaque filter what began as a moderately fleshy wine lost some of its tannic bite but was thinner, dryer and shorter following the filtration. During my most recent visit, I was able to sample the '96 rouge before and after it was fined with four egg whites per barrel. Again, the tannins were rounder after the fining but the wine was robbed, at least temporarily, of aromatic complexity and delineation of flavor. Domaine de Chevalier is far from the only Bordeaux estate to fine and filter their wine, and in fact is unusually candid in showing me its wines before and after clarification. What concerns me, however, is the apparently widespread assumption that buyers of Bordeaux require these steps, and are unwilling to put up with wines that throw a deposit in their early years. At the prices of today Bordeaux, do we really want "safe" wine?

Olivier Bernard began bringing in thoroughly ripe merlot under good conditions on September 12, then harvested his cabernet over a two-and-a-half-week period extending into early October. Grape sugars averaged a half-degree higher than in '94, and the richer grapes were given a longer cuvaison. Taking advantage of his new climate-controlled winemaking facility, Bernard did 25% of the malolactic fermentation in barriques for the first time. The young '95 appears to be a potentially classic Domaine de Chevalier but it was the domaine's white wine that lingered in my mind and on my palate.