Château Pichon Longueville Baron, 2ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2020

Name: Château Pichon Longueville Baron, 2ème Cru Classé, Pauillac
Brand: Château Pichon-Longueville
Price: 818.53 GBP

Available Vintages

all 1988 2000 2003 2008 2009 2010 2014 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

Christian Seely describes the Merlots as being “absolutely magnificent this year”. The Cabernet berries were “very small and very concentrated – pure and intense”. This resulted in a wine with “wonderful generosity from beautiful Merlots and great finesse and elegance from pure, intense Cabernets”. In short, it’s a “great Pichon Baron”*, and we certainly agree. Produced from 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot and aged in 70% new barrels for 18 months, this is another triumph from this legendary second growth. This opens with a complex bouquet of lavender pastilles, tobacco, liquorice-laced black fruit, violets and a touch of clove. The palate it is packed with mulberry, black tea and sweet earthy notes; dense, deep, resonant, tightly packed with mighty tannins, loaded with concentrated fruit and savoury cassis. Generous, powerful and mighty impressive!

critic reviews

96/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2020 Pichon Baron has a delineated, slightly conservative but brilliantly focused bouquet that opens gloriously with time in the glass: black cherries, blueberry and cassis tinged with graphite. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent and juicy tannins that disguise the structure underneath. There's a real peacock's tail on this Pauillac, and it's a long-term prospect. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

DRINKING WINDOW 2032 - 2065

date of review 11/2024

97/100William Kelley,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The brilliant 2020 Pichon-Longueville Baron offers up inviting aromas of sweet berries and cassis mingled with pipe tobacco, loamy soil, pencil shavings and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, its velvety attack segues into a concentrated mid-palate that's framed by rich, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, vibrant finish. A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, it's a true classic that's a touch less demonstrative out of the gates than the sensual 2019, but which in the fullness of time will prove every bit as good.

DRINKING WINDOW 2030 - 2065

date of review 04/2023

97/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, the 2020 Pichon Baron is deep garnet-purple in color. It gallops out of the glass with powerful notes of creme de cassis, blackberry pie, and licorice, followed by suggestions of rose petals, Indian spices, and cedar chest with a touch of mocha. The medium-bodied palate is elegant and fresh with fine-grained tannins supporting the bright black fruits, finishing long and perfumed.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2065

date of review 03/2023

96/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

Densely structured, with muscular tannins that confidently hold the cassis and blackberry fruits in check and load up on the Pauillac character. This is great quality, full of liquorice, gunpowder tea and grilled cocoa bean set against plump black fruits and a mouthwateringly fresh finish with eucalyptus and slate. Will be bottled in June 2020 (and go into vat a few months earlier), but will easily need 6 to 8 years in bottle to fully soften. 80% new oak, 48% of overall production, 30hl/h yield. Harvest September 14 to 30.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2064

date of review 12/2021