What is there to say? This wine is considered one of the monuments of 20th century wine. It's such a rare, prohibitively expensive wine that I never thought I would have the opportunity to taste it. 
A guest brought it to a Fete de Rois, or "Celebration of Kings," to commemorate Epiphany and the arrival of the 3 Kings to Bethlehem. Traditionally, there is a galette de 
rois, a flat, round cake baked with a little porcelain figurine (a feve.) Whoever takes the piece with the feve is the king or queen for the day. Someone did find the feve, but the Cheval Blanc was the King of the day, despite what any feve has to say about it. The wine's color was dark ruby with tinges of chocolate on the edges. Aromas were a little subdued at first, and I was a little surprised at how one-dimensional it seemed. Only some greeness and earthiness up front. This is one of the great terroirs of the world?! Bell peppers and dirt?!
It turns out the wine was just a little shy. I let my glass sit for several minutes, and when I came back, the wine had become a cloud of fruit (cassis, raspberry, cherry, prune,) minerality, chocolate, and roasted coffee beans. A sublime hint of Christmas spice, like anise, cloves, and cinnamon danced around, only peeking out for an instant here and there. There was still a little greenness, but the earthiness had melded smoothly with the toasted oak in the background. On the mouth, it was a little tannic, and even had a bit of astringency. The coffee and chocolate was more upfront here, but the balance between the aromas and acid was beautiful. The finish went for ages, and left my mouth watering for more. An incredibly elegant wine, who still presents young despite being 47 years old. It's shown some bouquet typical of aging, but with its current structure, it can probably be laid down for another 15 or 20 years. It was definitely the celebration of a King. note 1: Ironically, the Fete de Rois preparations are usually simple, following the lavish feasts of Christmas and New Year. Traditionally celebrated with a slice of galette and a glass of semi-sweet (moelleux) wine or cider (aka: Cheap,) the Fete is probably the last place I would have expected to see a rare bottle of wine to show up.
note 2: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a photo of the bottle, or with me holding the bottle, as I didn't take my camera to the Fete, the reason being stated in Note 1. So all I have is a fuzzy cell phone photo (which doesn't show the label well, and I don't know how to upload to my computer anyway) and this stock photo I pulled off the internet. However, the photos from the chateau are ones I did take.
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