Medium to deep garnet colored, the 2012 Cheval Blanc reveals lovely cassis, warm black cherries and redcurrant jelly notions with underlying hints of cedar chest, garrigue, Indian spices and damp soil. Medium to full-bodied, it possesses wonderful energy and freshness on the palate with a beautifully poised ethereal nature and long mineral-tinged finish. This elegantly crafted beauty should enter its drinking window in a couple of years and cellar gracefully for another 20+ years.

This wine is gorgeous in all facets, offering a simultaneously loamy and creamy mouthfeel, seamless layers of red and black currant, cherry, raspberry and blackberry fruit, and a long, tobacco-fueled finish that features alluring hints of black tea and incense. The fruit and terroir shine in this broad, deep and defined style. Best from 2018 through 2030.
— James Molesworth (WineSpectator.com, March 2015)

Fresh and particularly fragrant to smell; rich, elegant, velvety; what a balance, all the elements in a wonderful harmony; succulent, juicily ripe, graceful, effortless wine, racy, long to taste, both sweet and mineraly, creamy textured, with a beautiful fragrance of aftertaste. A lovely, lovely Cheval, a wonderful wine. Not particularly ‘big’ but, like the Margaux, a great harmony, splendid fragrance, a wonderfully thoroughbred, classy feel. Drink 2020-2040+. [54CF/46M]
– Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2013

A Cheval Blanc with an impressive center palate of blueberries, chocolate, almonds and spices. Full body, a solid core of fruit and a long, long finish. Goes on for minutes. Beautiful wine. Seamless tannins. Needs a few years of bottle age. Better in 2017.
– jamessuckling.com, Feb 2015

71% of the vintage went into the Cheval this year. Tight but exciting nose. Lifted, sherbert character over ripe red and black fruit. 13.9% alc. beautifully elegant, ripe but subtle fruit, chocolate, mocha and great texture. Layers on the finish. (54% Merlot/46% Cabernet Franc)

Tasted blind at the 2012 Southwold tasting, the 2012 Cheval Blanc has a perfumed, outgoing, almost "glossy" bouquet that wants to be noticed, lavished with damson, wild strawberry, fig jam and crème de cassis scents that are totally seductive. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, succulent, sensual red cherries and wild strawberry fruit, though perhaps the finish showed some superfluous hubris that just erased some of the potential delineation and focus. On this occasion it was pipped to the post by Ausone, but let us see how it matures, because the white horse always repays those that are patient. Tasted January 2016.

– eRobertParker.com, Oct 2016

53% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vintage was divided in two: the first part was very rainy and then they were saved by an Indian summer. Very accessible. Charming. Very fragrant. Light and ballerina-like and very charming. Racy and very recognisably old-style Cheval Blanc. Drink 2020-2035.
- JancisRobinson.com, July 2015