The 1982 Cheval Blanc is a sumptuous, sensual wine, bursting with aromas of sweet raspberries, orange rind, dried flowers, cedar box, black truffles, vine smoke and menthol. Medium to full-bodied, ample and enveloping, it's supple and seamless, with a fleshy mid-palate, melting tannins and a long, expansive finish. As is often the case at this address, at age 40, it's the wine's Cabernet Franc component that really dominates its personality, meaning that it gratifies the intellect as completely as it does the senses. I've drunk the 1982 Cheval three times this year, and it has been remarkably consistently brilliant. 99pts WK
Here is another great bottle of Cheval Blanc to follow last year's one, although now the 1990 looks to be exiting its slipstream to become the Cheval de choix. The bouquet is vibrant and animated with scents of kirsch, macerated red cherries, a smear of boot polish and sloes. It is hedonistic yet controlled. The palate is medium-bodied with a slight viscosity on the entry, retaining the lavishness and opulence that distinguishes it from the rest. There is plenty of glycerin towards the finish and you can see it cruising along for the next decade or two without losing its glow.

The 1982 Cheval Blanc is a sumptuous, sensual wine, bursting with aromas of sweet raspberries, orange rind, dried flowers, cedar box, black truffles, vine smoke and menthol. Medium to full-bodied, ample and enveloping, it's supple and seamless, with a fleshy mid-palate, melting tannins and a long, expansive finish. As is often the case at this address, at age 40, it's the wine's Cabernet Franc component that really dominates its personality, meaning that it gratifies the intellect as completely as it does the senses. I've drunk the 1982 Cheval three times this year, and it has been remarkably consistently brilliant.

You want to know what truffles in wine tastes like, get hold of this 1982 Cheval Blanc, still displaying warming and open berry fruits, raspberry coulis, campfire smoke, liqourice root and overall soft and welcoming tannins. Tertiary flavours yes but tantilising and moreish. 54.3hl/h yield (yes, really, and yet the concentration is so clear even now at going on 40 years!!). Harvest September 20 to October 2. Drink 2021 - 2038
Jane Anson - tasted June 2021 - Inside Bordeaux

The 1982 Cheval Blanc is a vintage that I have not drunk for a number of years, so this was a pertinent reminder of its pulchritude. It has a flat-out gorgeous bouquet with ebullient red fruit, warm bricks (terracotta), hints of liquorice and strawberry jam. It's the kind of bouquet that you could bathe in. The palate has a ripe entry, voluptuous yet exquisitely balanced, the Cabernet components of this Cheval Blanc quite expressed and more pronounced than I recall. Yet it's toying with you as it segues into a more Burgundy-like final third. Mercurial, sensual and riveting. Tasted at the 1982 Dinner at Hatched. Tasted Sept 2022

Fully mature, if not slightly past its prime, the wine offers a bit less fruit these days, focusing more on its secondary, cigar wrapper, herb, earth, truffle, spice and dried floral side. Soft, but with a hint of rusticity and herbs that now accompany the earthy red fruits. Tasted April 2022

(12.8% alcohol; 54 h/h): Amber-tinged red; based on other bottles I have tried, the color of this particular bottle seems slightly more evolved than usual. Penetrating aromas of strawberry jam, raspberry, red cherry, orange peel, flowers and minerals. Enters bright, dense and linear, with very pure flavors of red cherry, citrus, minerals, marzipan and subtle herbs. Finishes very long and pure, with a strong peppery note, a lingering coffee nuance, and chewy, mounting tannins. Complex and multilayered, this is a very impressive wine, magically combining fleshy depth and pure aromas and flavors without being overripe or heavy. I was told in the past by a local wine lover and expert that the 1982 Cheval Blanc actually contains 5% malbec in the final blend, but nobody can confirm this at the estate. The season began warm and dry during April, then turned very hot in July and very dry between August 10 and September 20. It was then hot again in September, with the harvest taking place between September 20 and October 2. Mid-flowering occurred on June 5 and mid-veraison on August 9. A very famous, much sought-after wine, the 1982 Cheval has often been scored 100 points by other wine critics. I'm not sure this bottle was quite up to that lofty standard, but it is undoubtedly a great wine.

Saturated deep red, with a hint of development at the rim. Roasted nose dominated by toffee and tobacco. Wonderfully silky but without quite the exotic ripeness of the '90. Still, this offers uncanny retention of primary fruit. Expands inexorably on the finish and goes on and on. A wonderful bottle that still improving. (The bottle in the blind flight was slightly less impressive: Good full red, with a hint of amber at the rim. Slightly medicinal aromas of red fruits, cedar and tobacco leaf; comes across as distinctly cooler than the '90. Dense but penetrating and still a bit closed in on itself. Less sweet and generous today than the '90, less exotic. But finishes firm and long, with a hint of dryness. I rated this bottle 93(+?).) Drink now through 2020.

It was a particular pleasure to taste this as there had been a very disappointing bottle at the tasting of 1982 first growths I reported on last year and the bottle of Cheval 1982 at Bipin Desai's great Los Angeles tasting had not been stupendous. This particular bottle looked very slightly older than the 1983, as one would expect, and was extremely intense and very, very dense in a thoroughly meaty sort of way. Clearly this is a wine of amazing concentration and ripeness though it still needs time. It recalls the 2000 more than any other vintage being just so massive as to mask subtle flavours for the moment. The acidity is definitely discernible and the tannins are quite furry. There are some lovely, appetising high notes and this is an extraordinarily youthful 20-year-old. The most obvious tasting note for the moment is B-I-G. (JR)