2000 | Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande | Pichon Comtesse Reserve

This has pronounced bay and cassis bush aromas that impart lots of peppery and herbaceous lift, but this is hardly on the lean side as there's a well of gorgeously pure currant and blackberry fruit notes at the core.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Sitting next to my former colleague, Pierre Antoine Rovani, at one of the tastings, he commented that he didn’t like the striking green note in the aromatics of this wine, which I didn’t detect at all, and a subsequent bottle at another tasting did not reveal it either. I do think there is a hint of bay leaf and a meatiness to it. In short, I find this to be a spectacular Pichon Lalande. Dense purple in color, with loads of coffee, mocha, creme de cassis, and chocolate notes, this is a somewhat unusual blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and a whooping 10% Petit Verdot, with a little bit of Cabernet Franc. The Petit Verdot certainly gives the wine more of a tapenade, floral note, which I think can be interpreted by some as herbal. This is a rich, opulent, stunning Pichon Lalande that is beginning to drink beautifully, yet should continue to improve for at least another 10-15 years and last 30 or more years.

• James Suckling: I love the nose of cedar and fruit, with hints of sweet tobacco and plums. Full and round, with pretty dense fruit and a long, silky finish. Complex and beautiful. You could drink it now, but I would still wait. This continues to evolve in the glass, showing notes of porcini. This could be the new 1982.

Producer Information

Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is a highly regarded wine estate in the Pauillac appellation of the Haut-Médoc region of northern Bordeaux. of the most significant second growths in Pauillac, Bordeaux. Often shortened in common parlance to "Pichon-Lalande" or "Pichon Comtesse" (partly to differentiate it from neighbor, Château Pichon-Longueville Baron), the estate produces a regularly lauded, Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant grand vin. Pichon-Lalande also neighbors first-growth powerhouse, Château Latour at the southern end of the Pauillac appellation. All three estates share something of a similar terroir and climate, which partly helps to explain the quality of the wine at Comtesse de Lalande – is sometimes referred to as "nearly first growth". The Pichon-Lalande estate covers 85 hectares (210 acres) in both Pauillac and Saint-Julien. The Saint-Julien holding covers twelve hectares (30 acres) and although the estate has produced a simpled labeled Saint-Julien, this wine is now rarely encountered. Five Bordeaux grapes are grown on the estate's vineyards, although the grand vin is historically dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot (with Cabernet Sauvignon making up 60 percent of the blend). Wines from Comtesse de Lalande are some of the more voluptuous to come from the Médoc due to the high proportion of Merlot in the wine. However, the amount of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blends is increasing to lend more structure and backbone to future vintages. This will not decrease Merlot's place in the cuvée, but rather the amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Orignally, Comtesse de Lalande was part of a larger property formally known as Château Pichon Longueville, owned by the Baron Joseph de Pichon Longueville who died in 1850. Upon his death, his children Raoul and Virginie inherited half of the property each. Raoul's half became Château Pichon-Longueville Baron, while Virginie's became Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. The estate was acquired by the Miailhe family (a prominent Bordeaux dynasty which initially established itself as wine brokers in the region but went on to own numerous estates and properties) in 1925. It remained in the family for much of the Twentieth Century but, from the 1980s to the 2000s, the estate was most associated with Miailhe heir May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, who ran the estate through this period of growth. Lencquesaing's custodianship of the estate remains widely praised through this time although the château was eventually sold to Champagne Louis Roederer in 2007. Prior to the sale, Lencquesaing established the Glenelly wine estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

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