Winemaker Notes
Blend: 58% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deliciously ripe and balanced with attractive, earthy nuances, surrounding ripe-plum and red-berry aromas and flavors. Sheet-like tannins layer up neatly and build a long, esteemed finish. Second wine of Pichon Baron. Try from 2023.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The more Merlot-dominated cuvée, the 2016 Les Tourelles de Longueville is a beauty in 2016 and is a fare click better than the 2015. Fleshy, forward, medium to full-bodied, and straight-up sumptuous, with lots of cassis, cedary herbs, and spice-driven aromatics, it’s another terrific wine from this estate. It’s certainly the more approachable of the trio and ideal for drinking over the coming 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Les Tourelles de Longueville is a blend of 58% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot (from young vines that are destined to go into the Grand Vin one day, according to Christian Seely), matured in 30% new oak for 12 months. It offers a mixture of red and black fruit on the nose, just a touch of melted tar with fine delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with quite a powerful opening, dense black fruit tinged with graphite, a solid Deuxième Vin with a slightly aloof finish (at least at the moment). There is a pleasant graphite note lingering long on the aftertaste that completes a fine Pauillac to enjoy over the next 12-15 years.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Spectator
A solid beam of black currant and black cherry preserve forms the base of this wine, with lightly singed alder, violet and warm earth notes peeking in from the edges. The focused, mouthwatering finish shows good tension. Best from 2021 through 2030.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.