Château Pichon Longueville Baron, 2ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2015
Tasted twice at the Pauillac UGC and at the chateau. This has the dubious honour of being the first wine we can remember showing better at the UGC than the Chateau. Based on the Union tasting, this has gorgeous aromatics of violets, incense and cherry blossom. The palate is exquisite with bright crème de mûre and wild bilberry flavours interspersed with boysenberries. There is a huge amount of high quality fruit, with an impressive finish of bright red damsons, loganberry, graphite and Valrhona shavings. Unusually, the sample tasted at the chateau was big and burly, but displayed less vibrant fruit and more unsophisticated tannins. This was probably just an anomaly.
critic reviews
The 2015 Pichon Baron has a generous bouquet with blackberry, wild strawberry and cedar scents on the nose. This is very pure and the oak is well integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins that lend it a fleshy, silky texture. This is countered by a silver bead of acidity and impressive mineralité on the finish. Fantastic. Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting.
The character of Pichon is very much intact here, bitter dark chocolate, cassis, firm tannins, structured and muscular, orange peel, crayon, cocoa bean and juicy cassis and pomegranate fruit, great quality, on the precipice of being ready to drink. 80% new oak, Jean-René Matignon technical director. Has grown into its frame over the past few years.