#2005 pichon baron full

‘They are both years when we didn’t have too much to complain about. ‘Concerning the great duo of 20, the jury is still out as to which of these is the greater, but they are two very good examples of great Bordeaux,’ says Christian Seely. 94/100Ĭhateau Pichon Baron 2010 Pauillac, Bordeaux Lovely gravel and chalk notes and some tannic structure. Elegant and supple with fresh, gravelly blackcurrant fruit. This was a cooler year with a nice September, but it doesn’t have the richness of 2014. 93/100Ĭhateau Pichon Baron 2012 Pauillac, Bordeaux Classic Claret with nice structure and acidity. It’s definitely a lighter expression of Pichon, but it’s perfectly proportioned and drinking very well now, and will carry on drinking well for a decade, I reckon. Lovely blackcurrant fruit with some raspberry freshness, and savoury notes of gravel and spice. Widely regarded as one of the weakest recent Bordeaux vintages, but still a nice wine. Not part of the vertical, but I thought I’d include it here, tasted the same week. 96/100Ĭhâteau Pichon Baron 2013 Pauillac, Bordeaux, France

#2005 pichon baron full

It’s full and generous yet still has precision. Really lovely freshenss and mouthfeel here. It’s very fresh with good concentration and great finesse. This is fine, fresh and expressive with a sweet core of floral blackcurrant fruit. They started Merlot on 20 September, then interrupted harvest in October for 8 days before picking the rest of the grapes. But September and October were wonderful and so Seely could wait quite late to pick. June, July and August saw lower than average sunshine and temperatures. This is a perfect example of the best that Bordeaux can do in a cooler year. This led to some confusion with Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.Ĭhateau Pichon Baron 2014 Pauillac, Bordeaux

Before then, it was referred to as Château Pichon Longueville Baron. Now the Grand Vin production is less than half what it was, with around 175 000 bottles each year.Ī note on names: here I’m using the name the Château has been using since the 2012 vintage: simply, Pichon Baron. But this comes at a cost in terms of volume. By not diluting this terroir, he believed he could take Pichon to its full potential. Seely’s proposal to the board was to make Grand Vin only from the best vineyard block: the terroir shared with these illustrious neighbours. When he arrived Pichon were using the entire Pichon vineyard area for Grand Vin, and made 395 000 bottles. The vineyards are undulating, not flat, and there are some deep beds of gravel under these undulations: perfect for old vine Cabernet to thrive. Seedy believes that Pichon shares some of the world’s greatest terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon with its near neighbours Latour and Las Cases. I once asked him: if you start making first-growth quality wines, how long will it take for the market to realise it? His reply: a generation. But he’s also aware that perceptions take time to change. And the market was ready to pay more for the very top wines: Seely was smart enough to see that by reducing quantity and raising quality, Pichon had the potential to be one of the elite group, rather than an also-ran. Previous boss Jean Michel Cazes had done a good job with Pichon since AXA’s purchase in 1987, but Seely wanted to take it next level. Previously resident of the Douro, where he looked after the AXA-owned Quinta do Noval (having turned it around from its dismal underperformance of the 1980s into one of the top properties in the Douro), Seely was invited to come to Bordeaux to head up all of AXA’s vineyard interests in 2000. ‘Pichon is capable of making wines that are among the greatest in the world,’ he declared enthusiastically. Located in Pauillac, just opposite Latour, it boasts three of the five Médoc first growths as near neighbours.Ĭhristian Seely was in London to present an extensive vertical of the modern era of Pichon Baron. Second-growth Château Pichon Baron is one of the great vineyard terroirs in Bordeaux.