Le Petit Cheval Blanc 2023 Syndicate

"Freshly zested lemon with grapefruit and orange aromas - so pronounced and really quite crystalline on the nose. At the back some green apple and white floral elderflower and acacia notes too. Clean and focussed, lovely precision and clarity to the flavours with such a strikingly poised texture. This has grip and zing but also just a touch of buttery, softness that adds weight to the body. Threads of nuttiness and wood enter giving accents and spiced edges. Piercing acidity adds lift and joins the layers of confit lemon, baked vanilla pecans, bitter grapefruit and soft cinnamon spice. Gorgeously complex and the flavour lasts for ages. It has everything you want from this cuvée which has found its rhythm. Tasted in a vertical going back to 2018 and this is the most impressive. Director Pierre-Olivier Clouet and cellarmaster Carole André."

"Pale green gold, this is savoury and sappy, with a wave of white peach and nectarine pit. Structure and longevity, focus and clarity, this wine is now seriously finding its feet and setting itself apart. Early harvest, precision winemaking, the Sémillon comes through on the texture with the dominant flavours of tea leaf, chamomile, citrus, greengage and lime speaking to the Sauvignon Blanc. Pierre-Olivier Clouet director."

"Zingy. Bitingly – almost searingly – fresh, which I find very reassuring in another hot and dry vintage. This would not be difficult to pick blind and one of the things I like about it the most is the sense of familiarity, with those lovely – and now redolently Petit Cheval Blanc – notes of linden, lime, Bergamot, blood orange, white grapefruit zest, greengage and gooseberry. The use of oak is more subtle than before and there’s a little less beeswax than in earlier vintages. The accent here is more on the citrus notes than the stone fruits. And that also leaves more space for the white delicate florality and the most gorgeous brushstroke of tannin on the finish. A beautifully stylish, sleek, slender and refined wine with a long and chiselled finish and a simply wondrous mouthfeel. So pure, so elegant, so crystalline and yet so intense. The best vintage yet."