Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2023

Intense and luxurious, with wonderful balance and grip, has the old school feel of a powerful, structured but effortlessly drinkable Pauillac with the precison and sculpted fruit quality of recent vintages at this exceptional estate. A gorgeous mix of cassis, cocoa bean, espresso, squid ink, graphite, pencil lead and gunsmoke. A wine you will want to drink and share, and one that is fully at the top of the vintage. 14.7% press wine, 60% new oak, final year of conversion to organics. Nicolas Glumineau director. Tasted twice.

• Reviewer Name: Jane Anson

This smells divine, lovely lush blackcurrant and black cherry characters on the nose with pencil led, graphite, liquorice and menthol elements - very Pauillac on the nose. Gorgeous weight, supple and agile, great movement and energy to this. Acidity makes this buzzy, tangy and bright but not over the top, this keeps its structure and retains a serious directness from start to finish. Generous licks of minerality adds some cool classicism to it. Sleek and refined, precise and very drinkable. One of a number of brilliant Pauillac wines in 2023. Winemaker Nicolas Glumineau wants it to be racy and it’s certainly racy. 50% grand vin production, 50% second. 3.67pH, 14.7% press wine only Cabernet. Ageing 19 months, 60-65% new oak and then one wine barrels.

• Reviewer Name: Georgina Hindle

The 2023 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is showing a more brooding, serious profile in bottle than it did from cask, unwinding in the glass with notes of blueberries, blackberries and plums mingled with hints of pencil shavings, violet and crushed mint. Medium- to full-bodied, deep and dense, with a nicely integrated chassis of sweet structuring tannin, it's classically proportioned, with a long, penetrating finish. This blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc checks in at 13% alcohol.

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2060
• Reviewer Name: William Kelley