Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

The early history of Pichon-Lalande matches with Pichon-Baron, also part of the same great Pichon estate which dated back to the time of Bernard de Longueville, son of Francois de Pichon. When Bernard married Anne Daffis de Longueville in 1646, the family assumed the barony of Longueville.

They had two sons, the elder Francois and the younger Jacques, with the latter marrying Therese de Rauzan, daughter of Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan. Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan had established a fine property in Margaux at the time, which formed the current Rauzan-Segla and Rauzan-Gassies.

Pierre branched out to Pauillac in 1689, buying several plots and later passing to Therese as dowry, thus bringing them to the Pichon-Longueville family, forming the foundation of the Pichon vineyards. Through the exchange of plots with neighboring Latour, the wines of Pichon quickly developed an excellent reputation and were second only to Latour in the commune.

Jacques died in 1731 and his son, also named Jacques, inherited and further passed the estate onto two generations, to Jean-Pierre and then Joseph. Joseph had five children, two sons and three daughters, and under the Napoleonic laws, the estate was passed to all the heirs when Joseph died.

Two shares were passed to Raoul, who was the only son still alive then, forming the current Pichon-Baron, while the remaining three shares were passed to the daughters, forming the current Pichon-Lalande. Upon the death of Raoul the two parts became more independent, with the daughters’ portion under direction of Marie-Laure-Virginie, the youngest daughter.

Marie-Laure was married to Comte Henri de Lalande in 1818, taking the title Comtesse de Lalande. The Lalande family built a chateau in 1840, and with the death of her two sisters, who were both childless, Marie-Laure gained exclusive tenure over the whole estate, with the property was ranked a deuxieme cru in the 1855 classification.

When Marie-Laure died in 1882, also without an heir, the estate was bequeathed to her niece Elizabeth de Narbonne-Pelet, who was wedded to Comte Charles de Lalande. Her two daughters Sophie and Henriette inherited the estate later, and subsequently passed to Sophie’s offspring, before it was sold to Louis and Edouard Miailhe.

The Miailhe family started as broker and negociant, and in the early 20^th century began to purchase properties, with Coufran, Siran, Verdignan, Citran and Soudars, before acquiring Pichon-Lalande. With the death of Edouard in 1959, the properties were distributed amongst his descendants, with Pichon-Lalande managed by William-Alain Miailhe, but he was resigned in 1972 after differences with other shareholders, passing the management to Michel Delon from 1975-1978.

In 1978 the estate was returned to Edouard’s youngest daughter May-Eliane, who was married to General Herve de Lencquesaing. May-Eliane acted quickly to buy out four of the other associates, enlarging her holding to 84%, also bringing a lot of new developments, with investment in cellar and a good team to manage the property.

During her tenure the quality of the wine rocketed, but due to her age and without heir, she decided to sell to the Rouzaud family of Roederer, the famous champagne house, in 2007. Frederic Rouzaud arrived and made some small-scale renovations, appointing Sylvie Cazes as director of the estate and Philippe Moreau to replace Thomas Do Chi Nam as technical director.

Sylvie resigned in 2012 and was replaced by Nicolas Glumineau, who had been technical director of Chateau Montrose.

The vineyards total 89 hectares, mostly in Pauillac but there are some in St-Julien. The major part of the vineyard is located to the west and south of Pichon-Baron, which includes 11 hectares within the St-Julien commune. The soil is typical Gunzian gravels over a deeper clay, with some very deep limestone and sandstone.

Planted with 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 8% Petit Verdot, but the wines in recent vintages all have a higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. Manually harvested, and in difficult vintage like 2011 a triage was carried out to remove the rotten berries prior to harvest, which is rare in Medoc.

In the chai the fruit is destemmed and pressed, then fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel vats for cuvaison between 18-24 days, with pumping over.

The grand vin is Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, with a second wine Reserve de la Comtesse, about 20-50% of the entire production. The grand vin will go into 50% new French oak for a period up to 18 months, and the second wine will see 25% new oak. Racking is done every three months, with fining by egg white prior to bottling

I have recently tasted the 2002 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance
Bright and clear, this wine is of medium ruby color, with legs.

Nose
Clean, the nose shows medium (+) intensity aromas of ripe black fruit of blackcurrant, blackberry and brambles, vegetable notes of black olive, dried fruit of prune, oak notes of cedar, pungent spice of liquorice, kernel notes of cocoa, some mineral notes of pencil lead. The wine is developing.

Palate
Dry with medium (+) acidity, medium (+) tannin of ripe and silky texture, the wine has medium alcohol and is of medium (+) body with medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as blackberry and blackcurrant, red fruit of plum, herbal notes of tea leaves, oak notes of vanilla and cedar. The wine has a long finish.

Conclusion
Very good quality Pauillac with an intense and complex nose, though there is a bit of green and vegetable characters which suggest coming from a more difficult vintage. The palate is very well structured and balanced, the robust concentration making the wine even better on the taste than aroma. With a very long finish, the wine is ready to drink now though can benefit from further ageing of another 3-5 years.