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12 bottles per lot
Details
Château Pichon-Longueville, Lalande
When I first went to Pichon Lalande in 1982, I had read a lot about it but had very little experience of actually tasting it – apart from a bottle of the '70 that I had bought on my first sales trip to New York in February 1974 at $8.99 at Sherry-Lehmann and was so impressed by its finesse that I cancelled my dinner that evening and ordered room-service so that I could linger with its haunting aromas and texture. That impression of finesse amidst Pauillac strength became more and more reinforced as I began to gather up all bottles then available : some showing the power of Pauillac (the '66 and '75), others leaning more towards a softer Saint Julien style (the '53 and '62).
I am not alone in linking the feminine nature of the wines with the predominance of women who through the ages have run the estate : Thérèse de Rauzan, Germaine de Lajus,, Marie Branda de Terrefort and, most importantly Marie-Laure de Lalande, the famous Comtesse, and of course finally, in 1978, May-Eliane de Lenquesainq, daughter of Edouard Mialhe who had bought the estate in 1926.
Maybe all these fine ladies did impart something of a feminine style to their wines, maybe not. More to the point is probably the subsoil of the main part of the vineyard to the south of the great Pauillac plateau, made of deep gravel over limestone then marl (nb the vines you see from the new reception room are nearly all Latour's!); also the high proportion of Merlot in the vineyard which Mialhe took up to more than a third of the plantings. His son Jean, told me that the family were convinced that, in the recessionary times of the 20s and 30s, the quicker-drinking Merlot was more appropriate ; at Coufran it was 100% and still is majority Merlot.
Today, the Merlot still represents about a third, but the Cabernet Sauvignon figure has increased as the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were reduced. Of the wines offerred today, the 1996 has the most Cabernet Sauvignon : 75%. Gildas d'Ollone, May-Eliane's nephew, who would receive us in those days for the primeur tastings, was always a bit apologetic about it, preferring the more sedate and more Merlot « Pichon » style of the '95. Both were still doing fine two years ago. Then the 1989-1990 pair were, in my opinion, never equals, the former much more intense than the lighter but very neatly aromatic '90. The '93-'94 pair, both lesser vintages picked in the rain, are said to be still hanging in there in a soft and easy style, the former softer than the rather tight-styled '94. I got into trouble at the château about the 2000, which I couldn't quite understand en primeur, finding it diffuse at first while all critics were sending it to the sky. Pichon can be fickle like that when young. I kept going back to see the cellar-master to taste again : What, you again ? ; and eventually persuaded myself it was a very great wine and today it most certainly has evolved into one of the greatest modern Pichons.
As a postscript, I have to add that the sale of the château to Frédéric Rouzaud of Roederer after the well-earned retirement of May-Eliane to South Africa in 2007 marked an important new step in the wine's evolution, particularly since the totally new three-tier gravity and « parcellaire » fermentation cellar came into being in 2013 under the guidance of the very thoughtful new estate manager Nicolas Glumineau.....who also has plans for further increasing the proportion of Cab.
Château Pichon-Longueville, Lalande 1996
Pauillac, 2ème cru classé
In original wooden case
12 bottles per lot
When I first went to Pichon Lalande in 1982, I had read a lot about it but had very little experience of actually tasting it – apart from a bottle of the '70 that I had bought on my first sales trip to New York in February 1974 at $8.99 at Sherry-Lehmann and was so impressed by its finesse that I cancelled my dinner that evening and ordered room-service so that I could linger with its haunting aromas and texture. That impression of finesse amidst Pauillac strength became more and more reinforced as I began to gather up all bottles then available : some showing the power of Pauillac (the '66 and '75), others leaning more towards a softer Saint Julien style (the '53 and '62).
I am not alone in linking the feminine nature of the wines with the predominance of women who through the ages have run the estate : Thérèse de Rauzan, Germaine de Lajus,, Marie Branda de Terrefort and, most importantly Marie-Laure de Lalande, the famous Comtesse, and of course finally, in 1978, May-Eliane de Lenquesainq, daughter of Edouard Mialhe who had bought the estate in 1926.
Maybe all these fine ladies did impart something of a feminine style to their wines, maybe not. More to the point is probably the subsoil of the main part of the vineyard to the south of the great Pauillac plateau, made of deep gravel over limestone then marl (nb the vines you see from the new reception room are nearly all Latour's!); also the high proportion of Merlot in the vineyard which Mialhe took up to more than a third of the plantings. His son Jean, told me that the family were convinced that, in the recessionary times of the 20s and 30s, the quicker-drinking Merlot was more appropriate ; at Coufran it was 100% and still is majority Merlot.
Today, the Merlot still represents about a third, but the Cabernet Sauvignon figure has increased as the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were reduced. Of the wines offerred today, the 1996 has the most Cabernet Sauvignon : 75%. Gildas d'Ollone, May-Eliane's nephew, who would receive us in those days for the primeur tastings, was always a bit apologetic about it, preferring the more sedate and more Merlot « Pichon » style of the '95. Both were still doing fine two years ago. Then the 1989-1990 pair were, in my opinion, never equals, the former much more intense than the lighter but very neatly aromatic '90. The '93-'94 pair, both lesser vintages picked in the rain, are said to be still hanging in there in a soft and easy style, the former softer than the rather tight-styled '94. I got into trouble at the château about the 2000, which I couldn't quite understand en primeur, finding it diffuse at first while all critics were sending it to the sky. Pichon can be fickle like that when young. I kept going back to see the cellar-master to taste again : What, you again ? ; and eventually persuaded myself it was a very great wine and today it most certainly has evolved into one of the greatest modern Pichons.
As a postscript, I have to add that the sale of the château to Frédéric Rouzaud of Roederer after the well-earned retirement of May-Eliane to South Africa in 2007 marked an important new step in the wine's evolution, particularly since the totally new three-tier gravity and « parcellaire » fermentation cellar came into being in 2013 under the guidance of the very thoughtful new estate manager Nicolas Glumineau.....who also has plans for further increasing the proportion of Cab.
Château Pichon-Longueville, Lalande 1996
Pauillac, 2ème cru classé
In original wooden case
12 bottles per lot
Special notice
On lots marked with an + in the catalogue, VAT will be charged at 7.7% on both the premium as well as the hammer price.
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