Tech Notes
Wine Details
Wine Enthusiast
The Wine Independent
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
The Wine Cellar Insider
Wine Advocate
Decanter
Vinous
Wine Spectator
By Chateau Pichon Baron
2019 Vintage Paulliac
Winemaker's Note
Our Grand Vin Chateau Pichon Baron 2nd Grand Cru Classe in 1855 comes from the very oldest vines grown on the historic plots of the estate. This authentic Pauillac offers an amazing sensory experience with its black fruit flavors and spicy hints. Chateau Pichon Baron shows great elegance, intensity, and exceptional length on the palate. It is a wine that improves with age and can be cellared for over 40 years.
Vintage Conditions
2019 was marked by a rainy spring and June, followed by a hot, dry summer. Cool spring temperatures alleviated the virulence of mildew, creating an environment free from the threat of cryptogamic infection. Rapid warming of the soil at the end of winter led to steady and even budburst, with slow growth. Unfortunately, these cool spring conditions were unfavorable to flowering and caused moderate coulure, except in our earliest-ripening terroirs. The last ten days of June gave way to hot and dry weather, punctuated by rain in late July and early August. The sunshine and heat stimulated the fruit aromas of the Cabernets and the concentration of polyphenols in the skins. Limited water during ripening accelerated sugar concentration and the breakdown of acids, increasing the grapes' phenolic potential. These conditions were also favorable to the quality of the tannins. Mid-veraison was reached between the 4th and 5th of August on the early-ripening plots and ended quickly and evenly in mid-August. Due to the hot, dry conditions, the grapes became particularly rich in mid-September. The first rains in late September weakened the skins and accelerated the harvest. This welcome moisture stabilized the sugar concentration, allowing us to continue the harvest more serenely. 2019 was characterized by high potential alcohol content and low total acidity (little malic acid).
Harvest and Winemaking
The harvest took place from September 18th to October 1st for the Merlot and from September 30th to October 11th for the Cabernet Sauvignon. Plot-by-plot and intra-plot selection form the backbone of our approach. This year, we focused on the sorting stage to remove the withered berries whose prune-like character favors premature development. Temperature control during vatting was made easier by cold stabilizing. The alcoholic fermentations started quickly with yeast from our vineyard. Temperatures were kept at 25 to 29 degrees C. Maceration times ranged from 15 to 23 days. Malolactic fermentation in vats took place rapidly, allowing the wine to be steadily transferred to barrels on fine lees in separate batches. The wine was transferred to barrels by the end of November.
Wine Details
Blend: 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot
Aging: 80% in new barrels, 20% from barrels of one vintage, for 18 months
[Information provided by Beyerman]
Region:
Bordeaux
Vintage:
2019
Grape:
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
Country:
France
Unit Size:
750.00 ML
Alcohol Percentage:
14.50
Appellation:
Pauillac
Wine: Chateau Pichon Baron 2019 Pauillac
Score/Rating: 100
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink from 2027
Review Date: 10/01/2022
Reviewed By: Roger Voss
Tasting Notes: As always, it is the Cabernet Sauvignon that sings. It brings an impressive structure to the wine, rich tannins and powerful black fruits. The wine is set for aging. It shows all the power and the open quality of the vintage. Drink from 2027.
Wine: 2019 Pichon Baron
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2066
Review Date: 05/01/2023
Reviewed By: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Tasting Notes: The 2019 Pichon Baron is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out of the gate with energetic notes of blackcurrant cordial, juicy blackberries, and licorice, followed by hints of tar, raspberry leaves, and rose oil. The rich, seductive, medium to full-bodied palate is jam packed with black fruit preserves layers, supported by firm grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and layered.
Wine: Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac 2019
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window: Try after 2026
Review Date: 01/27/2022
Reviewed By: James Suckling
Tasting Notes: Blackberries and blueberries with stone and graphite. Flint and black licorice, too. So perfumed. Full-bodied, very long and linear with incredible length. The new 1990, but better crafted. Chewy, yet so tailored and wonderfully proportioned. Freshness and elegance. Wonderful depth. 87% Cabernet Sauvignon [the] rest Merlot. The highest ever proportion of Cabernet. Try after 2026.
Wine: 2019 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron
Score/Rating: 98+
Suggested Drinking Window: 2032 - 2072
Review Date: 04/11/2022
Reviewed By: Jeb Dunnuck       Â
Tasting Notes: Based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot raised in 80% new French oak, the 2019 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron is pure class and just a beautiful, seamless Pauillac that does everything right. Revealing a deep purple hue as well textbook notes of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, freshly sharpened pencils, and liquid violets, it shows the more medium to full-bodied, elegant style of the vintage yet is brilliantly concentrated, has a supple, layered mouthfeel, ripe yet building tannins, and a great, great finish. It's more open and expressive than Mouton and shares plenty of similarities with Comtesse with its layered, supple, just perfectly balanced and classy style. It unquestionably already offers pleasure today (and it's a good time to try a bottle, as I wouldn't be surprised to see it close down), but it will need a decade to hit maturity and it will be a 50-year wine.
Wine: 2019 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron (Pauillac)
Score/Rating: 98
Suggested Drinking Window: 2030 - 2060
Review Date: 03/29/2022
Tasting Notes: Power and refinement, the hallmarks of all the great vintages of Pichon Baron are what you find here. Almost opaque in color, the wine exudes blackberries, black currants, tobacco leaf, cedar, wet forest, black pepper, and hints of flowers. On the palate, the wine is multi-layered with waves of dark red and black fruits, regal tannins, and a seamless finish that refuses to quit. Rich, luscious, concentrated, and with a remarkable purity of fruit, this is going to age and develop for decades. Yet, as its tannins are so soft and right, for a wine at this level of quality from Pichon Baron, it will drink well relatively early. With Cabernet Sauvignon checking in at 87% of the blend, this is the highest percentage of Cabernet in the blend in the history of the estate. Drink from 2030-2060.
Wine: 2019 Pichon-Longueville Baron
Score/Rating: 97+Â
Suggested Drinking Window: 2029 - 2065
Review Date: 04/07/2022
Reviewed By: William Kelley
Tasting Notes: The 2019 Pichon-Longueville Baron will go down as one of this chateau's great wines of the modern era, along with 2016, 2010 and 1989. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of cassis and plums mingled with notions of cigar wrapper, sweet loamy soil and violets, it's full-bodied, velvety and layered, with superb concentration, lively acids and rich, powdery tannins. Perfumed and resonant, this is a profound young Pauillac that bears more of a resemblance to its neighbor Chateau Latour than to Pichon Lalande this year. Pichon Baron was one of the great deals of the en primeur campaign, and readers who purchased futures are to be congratulated on their foresight.
Wine: Chateau Pichon Baron, Pauillac, 2eme Cru Classe, Bordeaux 2019
Score/Rating: 97
Review Date: 10/30/2023
Reviewed By: Andy Howard MWÂ
Tasting Notes: At the moment, Pichon Baron is outmuscling it's [sic] neighbour across the road. Intense, concentrated and inky dark-currant fruit on the palate with pronounced lead-pencil/mineral notes. 80% new oak. Yet there is more than just power here, with an elegance derived from floral notes, violet aromas, a hint of graphite and velvety tannins. The oak is so well-integrated. A very fine Pauillac with decades of life ahead.
Wine: 2019 Pichon Baron
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2060
Review Date: 01/2023
Reviewed By: Neal MartinÂ
Tasting Notes: The 2019 Pichon Baron is quite closed on the nose, blackberry, bilberry and incense, with graphite and cedar developing with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, not quite as finessed as Pichon Lalande, but with great structure and density on the close. It needs a little more precision to develop on the finish but just give it time. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.Â
Wine: Chateau Pichon Baron Pauillac 2019
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink now through 2045
Review Date: 03/31/2022
Reviewed By: James Molesworth
Tasting Notes: Expressive and vibrant, with a cassis bush aroma that leaps to the forefront, followed quickly by sleek and dense black currant, black Mission fig and black cherry preserve flavors flanked by a racy graphite note. Shows a burst of sweet bay leaf and savory accents through the finish, as the fruit takes an encore before zooming off. A serious wine with a hint of bling. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2045.
