2019 Château Pichon-Baron

Description

99   James Suckling
“Blackberries and blueberries with stone and graphite. Flint and black licorice, too. So perfumed. Full-bodied, very long and linear with incredible length. The new 1990, but better crafted. Chewy, yet so tailored and wonderfully proportioned. Freshness and elegance. Wonderful depth. 87% cabernet sauvignon rest merlot. The highest ever proportion of cabernet.” (2/2022)

98+   Jeb Dunnuck
Based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot raised in 80% new French oak, the 2019 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron is pure class and just a beautiful, seamless Pauillac that does everything right. Revealing a deep purple hue as well textbook notes of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, freshly sharpened pencils, and liquid violets, it shows the more medium to full-bodied, elegant style of the vintage yet is brilliantly concentrated, has a supple, layered mouthfeel, ripe yet building tannins, and a great, great finish. It’s more open and expressive than Mouton and shares plenty of similarities with Comtesse with its layered, supple, just perfectly balanced and classy style. It unquestionably already offers pleasure today (and it’s a good time to try a bottle, as I wouldn’t be surprised to see it close down), but it will need a decade to hit maturity and it will be a 50-year wine. (4/2022)

98+   Lisa Perrotti-Brown for Wine Independent
“The 2019 Pichon Baron is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs a little swirling to unlock notions of warm cassis, black cherry preserves, blueberry compote, and violets with touches of licorice, mossy tree bark, tar, and cedar. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm and very finely grained with a fantastic, racy backbone, finishing long, lively, and fantastically pure.” (5/2022)

98   Jane Anson for Inside Bordeaux
“Highest proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon on record, a reflection of how exceptionally well this grape did in 2019 in the gravel-heavy soils of Pauillac. The aromatics are all-enveloping, powerful and naunced and totally delicious, drawing you in and refusing to let go. Slate, pencil lead, charcoal, cassis, damson, layer upon layer of brilliance. Rivalling the incredible concentration and enveloping character of the 2016, this is a Pichon Baron that is full of confidence, and should not be missed. 80% new oak, 49% of total production.” (12/2021)

97+   William Kelley for Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pichon-Longueville Baron will go down as one of this château’s great wines of the modern era, along with 2016, 2010 and 1989. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of cassis and plums mingled with notions of cigar wrapper, sweet loamy soil and violets, it’s full-bodied, velvety and layered, with superb concentration, lively acids and rich, powdery tannins. Perfumed and resonant, this is a profound young Pauillac that bears more of a resemblance to its neighbor Château Latour than to Pichon Lalande this year. Pichon Baron was one of the great deals of the en primeur campaign, and readers who purchased futures are to be congratulated on their foresight. Drink Date 2029 – 2065 (4/2022)