Château Pichon Lalande, 2021
Château Pichon Lalande, 2021
- 75cl
- 13%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc
- Organic
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Optimal drinking window: 2031 - 2061
Please note that this wine is offered in repacked carton.
With a terroir defined by gravelly soils, Château Pichon Lalande in Pauillac produces refined and expressive wines that balance power and elegance, reflecting the estate's prestigious heritage.
What the critics say:
"The 2021 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is a towering wine. Just as it did en primeur, the 2021 dazzles from start to finish. The Cabernets are very high in the blend, and that comes through in a Saint-Julien endowed with ton of explosive vertical lift. Lavender, dried herbs, mint, spice, rose petal and a kick of orange peel are some of the notes that run through this striking Pichon Comtesse. The aromatics alone are compelling, but everything about the 2021 speaks to class personified. Bright saline notes extend the finish. In a word: sublime."
"Fantastic aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants and graphite. Metal shavings. It's medium-bodied, with a classy center-palate of fruit and fine, velvety tannins leading to an almost endless finish. This has so much class, especially for the vintage. Very low production. Drink after 2028."
Pichon Lalande's vineyards sit on the gravel-rich soils of Pauillac's southern plateau, with deep beds of Günzian gravel over clay and limestone subsoils that drain freely and warm the fruit steadily through the growing season. A portion of the estate actually crosses into Saint-Julien, which partly explains the estate's signature suppleness alongside classic Pauillac structure. The gravel retains daytime heat and releases it at night, helping the Cabernets achieve full phenolic ripeness even in cooler vintages like 2021.
Pauillac is the undisputed powerhouse of the Médoc, home to three of Bordeaux's five First Growths and more Second Growths than any other commune. The appellation produces wines built on Cabernet Sauvignon, with the gravelly soils contributing the spine and the relatively warm mesoclimate providing the fruit. Pauillac tends to be more structured and age-worthy than its neighbour Saint-Julien to the south, and more classically austere than Saint-Estèphe to the north. The 1855 Classification defines the hierarchy here, and Pichon Lalande as a Second Growth is widely regarded as one of the appellation's great overachievers.
The 2021 growing season in Bordeaux delivered one of those vintages that separates the wheat from the chaff. Spring frost in April walloped many vineyards, particularly on the Right Bank, slashing potential yields before the season properly began. A sodden start gave way to a blistering summer that pushed ripening forward, then September rains arrived just as harvest decisions loomed. The producers who survived the frost and timed their picking with surgical precision crafted wines of real character, whilst others found themselves wrestling with dilution or struggling with reduced volumes.
What emerged from this gauntlet is a vintage of surprising charm, though decidedly not a blockbuster year. The Merlot-based Right Bank wines show particular finesse where frost damage was minimal, with a silky texture that makes them uncommonly approachable young. Left Bank Cabernet Sauvignon fared better through the challenging weather, producing wines with good structure but less of the power you might expect from recent years. We find ourselves reaching for these 2021s now rather than cellaring them for decades—they're drinking beautifully with a few years on them and should hit their stride over the next decade.
OUR GROWERS
Château Pichon-Longueville de Comtesse de Lalande
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