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  • Weather

    12° C Light rain
  • Time

    10:07 AM
  • Wine average?

    95 Tb
  • Country Ranking?

    119
  • Region Ranking?

    56
  • Popularity ranking?

    45

News

PICHON COMTESSE UNVEILS NEW LABELS

The new look was revealed last week during Vinexpo and is meant to both coincide with the tenth anniversary of renovation work at the winery and an official recognition of the property’s sobriquet, ‘Pichon Comtesse’.

Charles Fournier, commercial and marketing director at the estate, explained that the new labels are, “purer and have a more modern feel”.

They also look similar, pointing to a clearer link between the two wines. The bottle shape has been very slightly changed, to be a little more conical.

Formerly known as ‘Reserve de la Comtesse’ and featuring a small portrait of Virginie de Pichon Longueville, the estate’s second wine will henceforth be known as ‘Pichon Comtesse Réserve’.

The changes will be in place from the 2017

Pichon Lalande 2015 has been released at €96 per bottle ex-negociant, up 48.1% on the 2014 release price of €64.8. It is being offered by the international trade at £995 per 12×75. This is a 59.2% increase on the 2014 (£625).

The wine has received a set of strong reviews from critics. Neal Martin (95-97) called it “quite brilliant” while James Suckling (96-97) described it as “Precise. It goes for minutes”.

As the chart above shows, it is priced at a discount of around 10% to the similarly scored 2009 and 2010.

Buyers might alternatively look back to last year: the 2014 has a score of 93-95 from Neal Martin and is available at an 37.3% discount on the 2015.

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History

Château Pichon Longueville de Lalande is ideally situated between the Gironde estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. The variety of parcels of land, due to the elements of the earth and their encepagement explains the complexity of the personality of the wines of Pichon. Since the end of the 1970's, the reputation of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has acquired the status of a "super second" and a "nearly first", in light of the consistency of its quality.

 

The Baron Joseph de Pichon Longueville’s children Raoul and Virginie inherited the property. After a period of several years during which the property was administered by the Baron Raoul de Pichon Longueville, the rupture was effective. From then on the lands of Pichon Longueville would have two very different futures.

Anticipating this indivision, Virginie married Count Henri de Lalande,and took over the control of the domain, the Count giving her independence and the title of Comtesse de Lalande. Her passion for vines and the quality of her management made her a strong personality in the Médoc in the last century, leaving her mark on the domain that has kept her name. In 1855 the Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande acquired the status of Second Cru Classé.

In 1920 the vineyards were auctioned. Edouard and Louis Miailhe, descendants of an old Bordeaux family of Vineyard owners and wine dealers, bought the Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in 1925.

 

In 1978 the family were drawing lots from a cake tin with the names of their châteaux, Mme. de Lencquesaing drew Pichon Lalande and cried for three days as this was the one property she did not want to inherit. The general financial situation in Bordeaux was miserable at the time and Pichon was badly in need of change and investments. She soon got down to business, starting by going back to school. She and her husband, a retired general, visited oenology classes and started making plans for the future. With an iron will and determination they set about making the necessary changes and within a very short time Pichon Comtesse was to become one of the most-loved wines of all.

 

In 2007, Madame de Lencquesaing decided to pass on her vineyard, in order to secure its future. She chose Louis Roederer to take over from her. This family business headed up by Frédéric Rouzaud already owned two other Bordeaux crus, Château de Pez and Chateau Haut Beauséjour, in addition to other high quality wines in Provence, Portugal and the United States.

For three whole centuries, just two families did their work to make the château and its wines famous. Today, a third family now oversees the destiny of this cru, with the aim of building on the work accomplished so far – and raising the level of quality and prestige still further.

 

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Vineyards

The different plots of land that make up the vineyard surround the chateau: Ardileys, Moulin Riche, Longueville, Grand’Plante, la Chapelle, Virginie, Sophie and Marie-Joséphine.
The 89 hectares of vines, close to the river, straddle the Saint-Julien stream towards the Léoville plateau and onto the Pichon Longueville plateau to the south of the Pauillac appellation.

 

The extraordinary richness of the Pauillac appellation is the result of a poor, avaricious soil. The hills are composed of gravel on clayey soil, creating conditions that provide excellent drainage. This gravel from the Quaternary era, known as Garonnaise gravel - particularly in the Gunzian layer, the oldest and topographically highest – is what explains the quality of the best vineyards in the Haut-Médoc.

 The Médoc is ideally situated between the River Gironde and the Atlantic Ocean. These two bodies of water encourage air movement, blowing away the clouds and reducing rainfall. The Pauillac region enjoys a microclimate and relative dryness – and this favours concentration of the grapes.

 

Featuring Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc and Petit Verdot, the diversity and proportion of varieties at Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is unique in the Pauillac appellation. Compared to its prestigious Pauillac neighbours, a relatively small proportion of Cabernet Sauvignons (45%) are planted on the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande estate. The relatively large share of Merlot (35%) guarantees the wine’s long-lasting quality and gives it an exceptional personality, characterised by its elegance and lack of harshness.

 Since Roederer took over the estate, major work on restructuring the 78-hectare vineyard has been undertaken. Thorough studies of the soils and sub-soils have produced very detailed mapping of the many different plots and better knowledge of the terroir. A replanting programme has been launched to ensure varieties and their root stocks are best suited to the type of soil.

61% Cabernet Sauvignon
32 % Merlot
4 % Cabernet Franc
3 % Petit Verdot

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Winemaking

When the harvest has been gathered, stripped and masked, the grapes are sent to the fermenting room, where rows of heat-regulated stainless steel vats of various capacities enable stringent, exact selection by plot to be carried out. The period spent in the vats ranges from 18 to 24 days depending on the year. Pumping over is carried out frequently, so as to extract as much colour and tannin as possible.

 

Since the late 1970s, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has gained a reputation as a “super second” or even “almost premier”, due to its constant quality. The key word in this success is selection - extremely painstaking selection from the harvest onwards, especially during blending. Blending takes place in late December or early January, with the help of the technical team and oenologists. An initial selection produces a Grand Vin, followed by a ‘second wine’ from the next selection. Ever since the nineteenth century, the owners of the great Medoc crus have been aware of the diversity of their vineyards and driven by the desire for excellence.

As a result they have made wines of different quality. ‘Second wines’, from the same terroir as ‘great wines’, are still a faithful reflection of the terroir’s quality and finesse and also express their own personality. They are generally excellent wines, but are less structured and less suitable for laying down than the Grands Vins. Pichon Longueville’s archives feature references to the existence of a second wine as early as the 1870s. A century later, this became known as Réserve de la Comtesse.

 

After the blending process, the wine is placed in oak barrels from the Allier and Nièvre forests. The wood adds to the noble character of the wine, giving it aromas and tannins and enabling it to acquire evenness as air slowly passes through the pores of the barrels. Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Grand Vin wine is aged for 18 months in barrels, made half from new oak and half from one-year-old oak. The barrels are subjected to soft toasting during the process, contributing to the quality of the aroma. The exchange between the wood and wine must be harmonious and balanced. Consequently, only 25% new wood is used for “Réserve de la Comtesse”. The wine is tapped every three months until it is bottled, and clarified. It is bottled at the château in June of the second year after the harvest. The prestigious bottles are sealed with the Pichon Longueville and Lalande family crests.

 

In 2007, Madame de Lencquesaing decided to pass on her vineyard, in order to secure its future. She chose Louis Roederer to take over from her. This family business headed up by Frédéric Rouzaud already owned two other Bordeaux crus, Château de Pez and Chateau Haut Beauséjour, in addition to other high quality wines in Provence, Portugal and the United States.
For three whole centuries, just two families did their work to make the château and its wines famous. Today, a third family now oversees the destiny of this cru, with the aim of building on the work accomplished so far – and raising the level of quality and prestige still further.

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2 different wines with 92 vintages

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