Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A candidate for the second wine of the vintage, the 2019 Réserve De Comtesse De Lalande is stunning stuff that surpasses the Grand Vins of most châteaux. Pure cassis and darker currants as well as tobacco leaf, lead pencil, and spring flowers all define the bouquet, and it's pure class on the palate, with a seamless, elegant, supple mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. It's one classy Pauillac that I'd be thrilled to drink any time over the coming two decades. Best After 2022
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Wine Enthusiast
This is already a very approachable wine. With its touches of spice behind the black currant fruits, the wine is a fine example of this vintage, fruit and a warm structure. Like all good second wines, it will develop relatively quickly.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Decanter
This is well structured and approaches 2010 in terms of its weight and depth of fruit. Deep spiced damson on the nose, you would be hard pressed not to say that this is as good as very many Cru Bourgeois 1st wines. Huge depth, similar to the 2018 but a little higher acidity, a little less round, a little more classic Pauillac in character. This is confident and serious with lots of tannins. A great 2nd wine, and a reminder of the consistently successful winemaking that is happening at this estate.
Barrel Sample: 93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Resèrve de la Comtesse is striking, soaring from the glass with scents of violets and rose petals mingled with cassis and dark berries. Medium to full-bodied, polished and succulent, it’s lively and seamless, with impressive concentration and a long, penetrating finish. Best After 2021
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Wine Spectator
Racy and fresh, with a slightly silky edge to the fine-grained structure, this understated wine offers fresh red and black cherry notes mixed with a flash of iron and a nudge of savory hints. Features a singed cedar hint on the finish that stays in the background. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023.
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.