Château Pichon Longueville Baron, 2ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2021
Pichon Longueville is a wine that doesn't always wow from barrel, but never fails to deliver from bottle. A perennial over achiever at Southwold, few chateaux can boast such an impressive track record. The 2021 is fashioned from yields of less than 20 hl/ha. Very precise and vivid with beautifully delineated flavours; this is a dialled back, athletic style, full of taut bright fruit. More finesse and elegance than recent vintages. A Pichon of classical proportions. Very impressive! 89% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Merlot.
critic reviews
The 2021 Pichon Baron has a deep garnet-purple color. It needs lots of shaking to wake up scents of freshly crushed blackcurrants, juicy raspberries, and boysenberries, followed by nuances of lavender, cedar chest, and crushed rocks. The light to medium-bodied palate has a fine-grained texture and bags of freshness supporting the youthful black and red berry layers, finishing with a floral lift.
Inky plum in colour, full of Pauillac character, cassis, fennel, pencil lead, liqourice and slate, bitter chocolate, creamy through the mid palate in a way that is unusual in 2021, with a foot on the break that gives a more understated, old school feel than recent vintages of Pichon Baron. Highest level of Cabernet Sauvignon to date (just a slice more than 2018), with 70% new oak for ageing. Harvest through to October 8.
The 2021 Pichon Baron, which was matured in 60% new oak and bottled in June 2023, has an engaging bouquet, estuarine-influenced with hints of seaweed permeating the black fruit. It shows fine delineation and focus, the like we have come to expect these days. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, quite fleshy in style to the extent that, if poured blind, I might misconstrue it as its Comtesse neighbor, despite containing just 12% Merlot. There's also a light savory element on the finish. Very fine.
The 2021 Pichon-Longueville Baron is showing very well in bottle, unwinding in the glass with notes of cassis, sweet berries and violets mingled with subtle hints of orange zest and cigar wrapper. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered, with good depth at the core, bright acids and sweet tannins that assert themselves on the gently structured finish, its serious, slightly reserved profile reflects the unusually high (89%) percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2021 concluded its elevage in large wooden vats for a month and a half, saw a touch less racking than normal, and was only fined with a small amount of gelatin, not egg white, as has been the rule at this address for several years now.