Château Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande
The Château Pichon Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande is one of the most famous wineries in the Bordeaux wine region . Since the 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-Beychevelle , and opposite the sister estate Château Pichon-Longueville-Baron , separated from the "Route du Vin", the departmental road No. 2.
The Château Latour , a Premier Cru Classé, and three other Deuxième estates from Saint-Julien , the Léoville-Châteaux las Cases, Barton and Poyferré, are in the immediate vicinity . This particular corner of France, the land on the border between Pauillac and Saint-Julien, is therefore considered by many wine lovers to be the finest spot in the world. In 2007 the château was bought by the champagne house Louis Roederer .
history
These two estates used to be one until about 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 Comtesse de Lalande inherited her two sisters and named her property "Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse-de-Lalande".
In 1926 the Comtesse estate was bought by the Miailhe family. Edouard F. Miailhe ran the estate for many years and bequeathed it to his daughter Mme. May Elaine de Lencquesaing. The lady made a name for herself in the wine world and ran the estate with an iron hand. This earned her the name "the general": her late husband was a general in the French army.
In 2006, the Roederer champagne house finally acquired the majority stake.
The wine
Pichon-Comtesse , as the estate is also known for short, or Pichon-Lalande , is characterized by a wine in whose cuvée for Cabernet Sauvignon a fairly high proportion of Merlot is added, which makes the wine more drinkable, rounder and more palatable. makes, at the expense of the durability. The younger vintages, however, contain a little more Cabernet Sauvignon. Another reason for the "round" is seen in the fact that a small part of the vineyards is in the territory of the neighboring municipality of Saint-Julien.
The vineyards cover 75 hectares and are divided into 45% Cabernet Sauvignon , 35% Merlot , 12% Cabernet Franc and 8% Petit Verdot . Due to the high proportion of Merlot, the wine is very round and flattering, as well as great drinking pleasure from a relatively young age.
The best wine ever made on Lalande is that of the 1982 vintage . This wine is rated by the internationally recognized wine critic Robert Parker with 100 Parker points as a perfect wine. A bottle of this vintage can rarely be bought for less than 300 euros (as of 2005). The wine of the year 2000 also came out excellent (97 PP). Other high-class vintages are 1996 (96 PP), 1995 (95 PP) and 1986 (94 PP). On the other hand, the estate shows inexplicable weaknesses in some years. The wines of the 1990 and 2005 vintages (86 PP) have only a poor reputation.
The second wines of the «Comtesse» are called «Reserve de la Comtesse» and comprise about half of the production. Together, they produce around 350,000 bottles a year.
1933
1961
a "different" 1982 ...
literature
- Charles Cocks, Edouard Féret, Bruno Boidron: Bordeaux et ses vins . 18th edition. Èdition Féret et Fils, Bordeaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-35156-013-6 .
- Horst Dippel : The wine lexicon . 3. Edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13826-4 .
- Robert Parker : Parker's Wine Guide (= Collection Rolf Heyne ). Heyne, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-16305-2 .