*Barrel Sample* Great dusty tannins, almost too powerful, very solid in character. The wine is chunky, allowing juicy fruits to show. It is a dry wine, certainly not hard. (RV)

The best second wine I have ever tasted from Cheval Blanc is the 2010 Le Petit Cheval. This wine is essentially three-fourths Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc. Rivaling the brilliant 2009, thirty percent of the production from this monstrously sized estate made it into this wine, which offers up plenty of white chocolate, cassis and mulberry as well as a hint of roasted herbs. With fleshy, round flavors, full-bodied texture and an amazing finish, this is no second wine, and considerably better than some of the Cheval Blancs of the 1960s and 1970s! Drink it over the next 15 or so years. (RP)

This is rather backward, with a thick coating of bittersweet ganache over a massive core of roasted fig, blackberry confiture and kirsch, backed by a long, charcoal- and tar-coated structure. The finish is broad, deep and very dark, with plenty of power in reserve. An impressive second wine. (JM)