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Wine Description
The Story
Our Grand Vin Château Pichon Baron, classified as a 2nd Grand Cru Classé in 1855, is made with grapes from the oldest vines on the estate’s historic plots.This quintessential Pauillac offers an intense and profound sensory experience of great complexity. Château Pichon Baron exhibits elegance, intensity and exceptional length on the palate. It is a wine that improves year after year and can age for over 40 years in the cellar.
The reputation of Pichon Baron until the 1960s was superior to that of Pichon Lalande across the road, it was also placed above Pichon Lalande in the Classification of 1855. But on the death of Jean Bouteillier in 1961 its reputation began to sink. His eldest son Bertrand was still young and inexperienced and there was a lack of money for necessary investments leading to a decline in quality of the wines during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s there were signs of recovery but not at the same speed as with many other properties during this time and certainly nowhere near that of Pichon-Lalande that had prospered enormously under the care of May de Lencquesaing to become one of the first "Super-seconds".
Wine Information
Winemaker note : A record-beating year! One of the earliest years of the century. A positively tropical August and a superb September enabled the harvest to be spread out in time. It turned out to be one of the longest, from September 13 to October 3.
1997 Harvest/The harvest really began on September 15th. 3 days were required in order to pick most of the Merlot. We started picking again on the 22nd and 23rd for the later Merlot and the Cabernet-Franc.The sunshine during these few extra days allowed the Cabernet Sauvignon to mature perfectly. They were picked in 2 lots : the youngest vines from the 24th to the 26th and the older vines from September 29th to October 3rd. The harvest lasted 25 days ! The first selection takes place in the vineyard. In fact, the slower rhythm of picking this year enabled us to make optimal use of our sorting tables.
Vinification/The perfect maturity of the berries allowed us to favour concentration. The temperatures, which were high at the beginning of maceration, had to be mastered in order to obtain a peaceful evolution up to 28-32° during fermentation. They were maintained at 26-28° during the post fermentation period. The finesse of the tannins, in particular on the old parcels of Cabernet, allowed us to carry out long macerations : 21 to 26 days were necessary !
Blend : 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot.
Ageing : During 15 months, 70% new oak barrels, 30% one-year old barrels
Alcoholic Content : 13°