I had to taste for myself, after reading about this fabled property that had recently churned out an instant beverage.
2002 Ch. Pichon Lôngueville Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac
1st bottle from a multi-bottle at-release purchase ($40+ per, iirc).
Very traditional Bordeaux bouquet.
Still a bit of tannin, black fruit acidity, broth, tree bark, and, as mostly consistent with this property, the 1st Growth-ish quality fruit, silky texture, taut power, class and elegance, all in an “un-cool” vintage. Delicious length. Nothing but a solid, classic, complex Bordeaux and, quite easily, one of the best that I’ve had from that vintage.
Splash decanted 1 hour pre-dinner and a hit with our simple ribeye .
Nice note Ramon. There were some great bargains on 2002s, a vintage considered by many as “weak” but offering some excellent classic wines for old school palates.
Nice. We had a bottle of this a couple of months ago, and even with decanting, it seemed a touch sharper/tangier than I was expecting. I have not had 2002 in a very long time, maybe a decade and a half, so perhaps my memories & expectations were ill calibrated.
Is this house still big on the petit verdot? I have not kept up with them.
Appreciate the info.
I admit that I don’t know the extent of Petit Verdot blended into Pichon Lalande’s main wine, but a quick googling (AI) said that 1% of the final blend is (was) Petit Verdot. Doesn’t sound like a biggie to me, or should it?
The percentages I quoted above are the planted percentages. The final blend of the grand vin, at least in the past, could vary. For example, if I recall correctly, the 2003 was supposed to be 14% Petit Verdot.
Didn’t Glumineau also change the cepage so that it is much heavier in Cabernet Sauvignon and lighter on Merlot and Cabernet Franc than it was during the Lencquesaing era (and also changed where the varieties are planted on the estate)?
Friends with much more recent experience with PLL have told me the Glumineau wines are very different now (and less distinctive and unique).
That seems an unfair knock on the newer wines to me - they’ve been uniformly superb and about as textbook an expression of that Pauillac-meets-St.-Julien zone as you can find outside of Latour. They might be a bit richer than the May-Elaine era wines but that’s not a bad thing when you’re making a wine capable of aging 50+ years. And I loved the May-Elaine era too (at least the high points through the '80s and '90s) so I’m not pitching one of those silly “rejuvenation” narratives. What’s admittedly different is that we’re unlikely to see a wine like the controversial 2000 again, where some people complained of a green streak from that petit verdot not reaching perfect ripeness. I’m someone who loved that wine, but it was aberrational even within that period. The '01, for example, has a similar PV content but without the stalky character that made the 2000 controversial. Anyway, I do think the loss of the PV is a shame, but it’s hard to complain about what’s being produced now objectively speaking, and there isn’t any point in the transition where you can sense any break in continuity when you do a vertical. Just one great PLL after another. It’s a chateau with a lot of character, and all that is still there.
Agree - just came home from a Bx 2022 tasting incl. Pichon-Lalande (very fine) … totally different from the 2002 which I had in April … classic Pauillac but a bit atypical PL …
From RP note '03 is 4% PV.
RP’s note on the '01 says it is 14% PV! '02 is 6%. '00 is 10%.
Info sourced from old RP notes.
That’s quite an astounding amount of PV. Count me as a fan of the '01 and the '00. At least for me I don’t think I find the PV off putting. I haven’t had the '00 since '13, drank through some '01s more recently and enjoyed them.
Thanks Keith for the thoughtful response. I’m participating in a PLL vertical later this month (where we are opening the 2000), and am looking forward on checking in. Unfortunately, we only have one Glumineau-era wine lined up (the 2019).
2002 is my son’s birth year and we have an unopened case of this. Love PLL, the leaner, the greener, the more tobacco, the more tasty. The 2002’s I have opened have all been cool, proper and seemingly wonderfully lean Bordeaux if you like that. A bygone era at this point.
