#Pichon baron 1989 full#

And yet, 19 were both marvelous, made from higher yields. Their investments in the vineyard and the vat room have borne fruit especially in vintages since 2000. Jean-Rene Matignon – who flew to Washington for this tasting dinner – has been at the helm since 1987 as technical director, when AXA Insurance bought the property. This was my sixth consecutive annual Bordeaux gala dinner in Washington D.C. The wines of Pichon Baron have been particularly excellent in recent memory since the 2000 vintage. It contains more Cabernet Sauvignon than Lalande and almost as much as Latour, making for a muscular wine that rivals the first-growths at a fraction of their price.By Panos Kakaviatos for The vineyard abuts the vines of Pichon Lalande and Latour, not a bad pedigree.

#Pichon baron 1989 full#

But most of all, Pichon Baron is once again taking full advantage of one of Bordeaux’s prime locations. With AXA’s deep pockets, Pichon Baron can afford to wait longer for the grapes to ripen, pick them faster and age the wines in a greater percentage of new oak barrels.

Winemaker Daniel Llose packs all that flavor into his wines with the help of equipment such as temperature-controlled fermentation tanks linked with a computer, nitrogen-blanketing pumping systems that keep air from oxidizing the wine as it travels from barrel to bottling tank and gravity-fed racking systems that minimize the use of pumps. It shows astonishing concentration of blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate and vanilla flavors, not to mention great tannin structure. This 1989 is breathtaking in its purity and intensity. They built a new computerized winery with a stunning neo-Greek façade and state-of-the-art equipment.ĭespite the gleaming equipment, the winemaking style at Pichon Baron is traditional, even to the point of racking the wine under candlelight instead of pumping from barrel to barrel. They reclaimed some of the estate’s fallow land, more than doubling the acreage under vine.

What AXA and Cazes have done at Pichon Baron must be seen to be believed. The château was the first major acquisition by AXA in Bordeaux, swiftly followed by stellar names such as Suduiraut and Cantenac-Brown. Only three 1989 Bordeauxs surpass Pichon Baron, all first-growths that cost at least twice as much.ĪXA, the French insurance giant, bought Pichon Baron in 1987 and asked Cazes to manage it. By the 1989 vintage, the château was hitting on all cylinders. Not coincidentally, that was the first wine completed under the supervision of Jean-Michel Cazes. Starting with the 1986 vintage, however, Pichon Baron got its act together.

Once upon a time, Pichon Baron ranked among the top second-growths, but in recent decades the château’s fortunes have slipped. Here’s what we wrote at the time, recognizing an ethic of excellence that still drives the estate under the current management and winemaking team, which includes managing director Christian Seely and technical director Jean-René Matignon. In 1989, under new ownership and a now-legendary manager, the winery (formerly known as Château Pichon-Longueville Baron) had a breakthrough vintage, and Wine Spectator named it Wine of the Year in 1992. Château Pichon Baron has been a leading Left Bank estate for decades, but that wasn’t always the case.