Deep garnet in color and made of 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot, the nose of the 2010 Cheval Blanc is a bit subdued to begin, measuredly opening out to reveal achingly provocative notions of molten chocolate, preserved Morello cherries, baked blackberries, boysenberries and blueberry compote with wafts of underbrush, cigar box, cumin seed and sandalwood. Full-bodied, the palate is a full-on atomic bomb waiting to go off, with very tightly coiled, slowly maturing black fruits eking out glimpses of a vast array of nuances. Still very youthful, it finishes with an incredibly persistent, jaw-dropping display of earth and mineral fireworks. I’d leave this one for another 5 years and drink it over the next 50.
100 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate (Mar 2020)
Showing even better than a bottle a few years ago, the 2010 Chateau Cheval Blanc is perfection in a glass and wine doesn’t get any better. As with the 2009, it’s a powerful, concentrated Cheval Blanc, yet it has a slightly dark, cooler profile in its smoky black fruits, graphite, new leather, crushed rocks and cured meat aromas and flavors. Where the 2009 hits the palate with a sunny, sexy style, this stays more inward and masculine, yet it still has incredible sweetness of fruit, flawless integration of its fruit, tannins, and acidity, a great mid-palate, and a finish that goes on for over a minute. It opens up with time in the glass and offers incredible pleasure today, with an exotic masculine yet sexy style, but feel free to enjoy this legendary wine any time over the coming 3-4 decades.
100 points, Jeb Dunnuck (Jun 2019)
This is the finest Cheval Blanc for many years. It is, quite simply, magnificent. The wine shows the greatness of Cabernet Franc in the vintage, with 57% of the variety in the blend. It is beautifully structured and perfumed, with velvety tannins, balanced acidity and swathes of black-currant and black-cherry fruits. It's well on course to becoming a legendary wine.
100 points, Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast (May 2013)
The aromas here are crazy with flowers, mushroom, forest floor, and fruit. It seems like I am walking through a row of the vines in Cheval Blanc when I have my nose in the glass. It's full-bodied, with fabulous layers of ultra-fine tannins and milk chocolate, raspberries, and a phenomenal finish. Truly one of the greatest Chevals ever. Better than 2009. Try in 2020.
100 points, James Suckling (Nov 2013)
2010 Cheval Blanc is a big wine, dark and stormy with large quantities of perfectly mature fruit and an elegant backbone of soft liquorice infested tannins. It is hugely impressive already now but it will need time to resolve its enormous potential. It is a potential 100 points wine where all elements seem to be in perfect balance and in the right doses and it will be interesting to follow. If you open a bottle now it needs a few hours of decanting.
99+ points, Ivar Bjurner, Wine Independent (Aug 2025)
This is stone-cold shut down right now, but why worry? You'll want to wait at least a decade before breaching a bottle as massively endowed as this, with loads of loamy bass notes thumping along underneath a riveting track of licorice snap, pastis-steeped black currant fruit, maduro tobacco and espresso. And then there's an echo of petrichor at the very end that hints at the aromatic fireworks to come with cellaring. Should compete for wine of the vintage. Best from 2020 through 2040.
98 points, James Molesworth, Wine Spectator (Mar 2013)
The kind of aromatics that tell you this is a concentrated, rich and silky wine without having to take a sip. Expect a brooding 2010 at this point, packed with cocoa bean, liquorice, crushed rocks, smoked earth. So so good but so young - this could be half its 15 years of age, and it is going to take its sweet time to come around, but recognising its quality is effortless. 50% new oak for ageing.
98 points, Jane Anson (Oct 2024)
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