Château Pichon Longueville, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, 2011

Viticulture

The Grand Vin Château Pichon Baron 2nd Grand Cru Classé comes from the very oldest vines grown on the historic plots of the estate. This authentic Pauillac offers an amazing sensory experience with its black fruit flavours and spicy hints. Château Pichon Baron shows great 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. 2011 was an early vintage, although slightly less so than expected. A warm, dry springtime was followed by a cool summer. Work on the vines was carried out rationally according to the weather conditions and the profile of each plot. At the end of July and beginning of August, they carried out carefully-targeted green harvesting (leaf stripping and thinning) to even out the ripening of the grapes. By September, they were recording astonishingly high phenolic potential on the Cabernet. The start of the month was most beneficial to this vintage planted on the very best terroirs.

Winemaking

The grapes were picked and brought in the vat-house plot by plot, in order of maturity, with particular attention to selection on the plots. Harvesting ran from 12 to 28 September, with two breaks on 18 and 25 September. The first three days were dedicated to the earliest-ripening vines, such as the Sainte Anne plot. Then the old merlot vines were harvested until 20 September. The cabernet franc and sauvignon were picked last as warm, dry, sunny conditions finally settled in. Sorting in the vat-house was highly meticulous, keeping only the very best grapes. The grapes were sorted twice, both before and after de-stemming. Once de-stemmed, the selection of the grapes was fine tuned on two sorting lines, one manual and one using optic systems. The must from each plot is vinified individually. Alcoholic fermentation was quick, driven by naturally high temperatures. We carried out repeated and individual pumping over, adapted to the profile of each batch. Maceration lasted 20 to 25 days, depending on the results of our tasting to check on extraction. The batches of wines were then transferred into barrels after malolactic fermentation and blended during maturing. Aged 80% in new barrels, 20% from barrels of one vintage for 20 months

Oak Ageing

Time: 20 Months
Type: French Oak
% wine oaked: 100
% new oak: 80

Tasting Note

The colour of Château Pichon Baron 2011 is deep garnet with ruby glints. On the nose, there is great aromatic presence with spicy, delicate, chocolatey and lightly toasted notes. There are delicate aromas of fruit: blackberry, black cherry. The attack is fleshy, generous and full-bodied. The rich, silky tannins are beautifully mature. The mouth-watering finish becomes more refined and sweet.