Château Pichon Longueville Baron
The Château Pichon Longueville-Baron is one of the most famous wine estates in Bordeaux . Since the Bordeaux wine classification of 1855, the winery has been classified as Deuxième Grand Cru Classé , the second highest of the classifications.
It is located in Pauillac on the south side of the suburb of Saint-Lambert, directly on the municipal border with Saint-Julien, and opposite the sister estate Château Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande , separated from the "Route du Vin", the D2 departmental road.
In the immediate vicinity is the Château Latour , a Premier Cru Classé, and another three Deuxième estates in Saint-Julien, Léoville ( Las Cases , Barton and Poyferré ).
history
These two estates used to be one until around 180 years ago, Château Pichon-Longueville .
The land was acquired by Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan from 1660. He also owned the Château Rauzan in Margaux, which was later divided. Only in the 17th century did the Médoc begin to drain the vast swamps and cultivate wine. De Rauzan's daughter married Jacques de Pichon, Baron de Longueville, who was the first President of the Bordeaux Parliament, in 1694. The winery was renamed "Château Pichon-Longueville". In the middle of the 19th century the property was divided. While the previous owner, Baron Joseph de Pichon-Longueville kept 2/5 of the property, his 3 daughters (Sophie de Pichon, the Vicomtesse de Lavaur and the Comtesse de Lalande) received three fifths of the property. Later a male descendant named Raul took over the smaller part of the baron; this became today's estate, Château Pichon-Longueville Baron.
The winery has been owned by AXA Millésimes, a subsidiary of the AXA insurance group , since the 1980s . Shortly after the takeover, he organized an architecture prize competition for the renovation of the wine cellar, the winning design of which then led to the new fermentation cellar completely made of stainless steel. The skylight tower is a floating ring foundation construction on inclined columns, a surprising picture.
The wine
The vineyards cover 73 ha and 60% of grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon , 35% Merlot , 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot occupied. The vines are on average 30 years old. The total production of the estate amounts to approx. 420,000 bottles of wine per year, of which approx. 40% is accounted for by the second wine "Les Tourelles de Longueville".
Pichon Baron , as the estate is also known for short, is characterized by a wine that is made in the very classic Pauillac manner. In good years, the "Baron" regularly produces excellent wine . The best wine ever made there so far is the 2010 vintage . This wine is rated by the internationally recognized wine critic Robert Parker with 97-99 Parker points; The years 2000 (97 Parker points) and 2009 (98 Parker points) have similar ratings. A bottle of this vintage can rarely be bought for less than 150 euros (as of 2014).
Web links
- The official website of the winery (French and English)
- Informative website from Medoc-wines.com (German, French, English)