Winemaker Notes
Blend: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is a towering wine. Just as it did en primeur, the 2021 dazzles from start to finish. The Cabernets are very high in the blend, and that comes through in a Saint-Julien endowed with ton of explosive vertical lift. Lavender, dried herbs, mint, spice, rose petal and a kick of orange peel are some of the notes that run through this striking Pichon Comtesse. The aromatics alone are compelling, but everything about the 2021 speaks to class personified. Bright saline notes extend the finish. In a word: sublime.
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James Suckling
Fantastic aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants and graphite. Metal shavings. It's medium-bodied, with a classy center-palate of fruit and fine, velvety tannins leading to an almost endless finish. This has so much class, especially for the vintage.
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Decanter
Cocoa powder, iris notes, pink roses and black fruits - so fragrant - you just want to smell the wines in 2021 for hours. This is a seriously impressive Comtesse and stands out as one of my favorite wines of the vintage with real promise. Power and depth from the get go, tannins are massy, softly fleshy but also provide support and structure, giving layers to the fruit and savory elements that combine clove, cedar, cola, vanilla and cinnamon with teeth-coating licorice and graphite too - the soft salinity entering towards the finish. It's concentrated and serious with a tightly knitted core, a consequence of the tiny yields and strict selection as well as the highest percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend since 2013. I love the terroir signature on show in the glass as well as an overall sense of retaining elegance and finesse. A top buy for me!
Barrel Sample: 96 -
Wine Enthusiast
Black-currant fruit aromas are also backed by a powerfully tannic wine. It is both elegant and concentrated, and its refined character comes from the stylish structure. The wine also has enormous potential.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande wafts from the glass with aromas of blackberries and minty cassis mingled with notes of violet, lavender, pencil shavings and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and polished, it's beautifully seamless and complete, with a fleshy core of fruit, ripe acids and sweet, powdery tannins that assert themselves on the gently structured finish. This will offer a broad drinking window. It's one of the vintage's real successes, but it also represents only one-quarter of a "normal" production.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Merlot, that spent 18 months in 60% new oak (there’s also 13% press wine in the blend), the 2021 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse De Lalande reveals a vivid purple hue to go with beautiful aromatics of pure cassis, violets, spring flowers, spicy oak, and graphite, with a beautiful sense of minerality with time in the glass. Playing in the medium-bodied end of the spectrum, it has a seamless, layered mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, no hard edges, and a pure, layered style that shines in the vintage. It's already impossible to resist but I see no reason it shouldn’t evolve for two decades.
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Wine Spectator
Plush, warm and inviting, offering waves of cassis, crushed plum and blackberry puree that cruise through, while a fine-grained structure provides support. Shows alluring accents of black tea and alder on the finish, with the fruit keeping the upper hand easily. Very polished for the vintage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2026 through 2040.
Ideally located in the southern part of Pauillac, on the banks of the Gironde Estuary, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, a second growth in the 1855 classification, boasts an outstanding terroir. Here, Cabernet Sauvignon is king, blending perfectly with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to create classy and complex wines.
The Pichon Longueville estate goes back to 1689. In 1850, Virginie de Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, and her two sisters inherited three-fifths of the vineyard from their father. This took on the name of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. In 1978, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, daughter of Edouard Miailhe, in turn inherited this beautiful property and devoted herself entirely to continuing the tradition of quality wine. In 2007, Pichon Comtesse is purchased by Champagne Louis Roederer and joined the Roederer Collection. Since then, the independent family group has injected an innovative and ambitious spirit into this emblematic estate. From building modern technical installations to restructuring the vineyard, which is now grown 100% organically, every effort is made to help the terroir of Pichon Comtesse express itself serenely with power and elegance.
Just three families have been responsible for maintaining this wine's superb reputation for three centuries. The international reputation of this "Super Second" Growth can be attributed to unfailing quality and dynamic owners.
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.