Château Pichon Comtesse 2018 Pauillac 2e Grand Cru Classé

Parker: The grand vin represents 50% of the crop this year. The 2018 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is made up of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot with a pH of 3.85, an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 87 and 14% alcohol. Very deep purple-black colored, it is like hitting a brick wall to begin, needing considerable coaxing to start to reveal notes of crushed black cherries, warm blackberries, ripe blackcurrants and chocolate cake with nuances of violets, rose hip tea, charcuterie, tapenade and incense with wafts of new leather and iron ore. Full-bodied, concentrated and completely laden with tightly wound black fruit and savory layers, the palate gives a rock-solid backbone of firm, super ripe, super fine-grained tannins and soft background freshness, finishing very long with a veritable display of mineral fireworks.“I just don’t know where it came from,” Pichon Lalande’s Technical Director, Nicolas Glumineau, told me. “So much rain. Six months of almost daily rain! So, there came a point when you had to ask, what kind of wine can we make in 2018? Then from mid-July it abruptly switched. It was warm and dry—such contrast was very unusual. So, what kind of wine were we going to make? We wanted everything to ripen perfectly. Every day, we could see the shape of the berries changing in the run-up to harvest, shrinking, and we wanted to make something pure with freshness. We harvested over four weeks. I think 2018 is between 2009 and 2010. It makes me think of 1989. People ask me what kind of wine do you want to make at Pichon? This is it.”