65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot

Food pairings: A charcuterie board, duck breast, entrecôte bordelaise, vegetable lasagna, and cheeses such as Saint-Nectaire.

Winemaking: Named L'Esprit de Chevalier in 1989, this is the red second wine of Domaine de Chevalier. It draws mainly on young vines and on lots without quite the full structure of the grand vin. Grapes are hand-picked into small crates and sorted in the vineyard and before and after destemming. The 2020, harvested September 14–30, aged 14 months in barrel, one-third new.

Vineyards and terroir: The red vines grow in Léognan on black sand and fine white gravel over a well-drained clay-gravel subsoil. Young vines planted since 1986 supply much of L'Esprit. Domaine de Chevalier has been HVE certified since the 2017 vintage.

Family: Domaine de Chevalier appears on Pierre de Belleyme's famous 1783 map. The Bernard family bought it in 1983, and Olivier Bernard has run it ever since, with Stéphane Derenoncourt as consultant. The red grand vin is a Classified Growth of Graves.

In the pictures: An engraving of Domaine de Chevalier's house and vineyard by Eugène Vergez, published in Cocks and Féret's Bordeaux et ses vins in 1898 (public domain).