2021 Château Pichon L. Comtesse

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.

- Antonio Galloni (12/2023)

A blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Merlot, that spent 18 months in 60% new oak (there’s also 13% press wine in the blend), the 2021 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse De Lalande reveals a vivid purple hue to go with beautiful aromatics of pure cassis, violets, spring flowers, spicy oak, and graphite, with a beautiful sense of minerality with time in the glass. Playing in the medium-bodied end of the spectrum, it has a seamless, layered mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, no hard edges, and a pure, layered style that shines in the vintage. It's already impossible to resist but I see no reason it shouldn’t evolve for two decades. (04/2024)

A blend of 88% Cabernet sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Merlot, the 2021 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has a deep garnet-purple color. It gallops out with profound notions of juicy blackberries, freshly crushed blackcurrants, and redcurrant preserves, leading to fragrant wafts of violets, aniseed, and sassafras, with a touch of wild sage. The light to medium-bodied palate is graceful and shimmery, with a lively line and firm, fine-grained tannins framing the energetic black fruits, finishing long with a tingly, minerally lift. (04/2024)

Engaging, with a flurry of violet, alder and black tea notes leading off, followed by a solidly built core of black currant and sweet bay leaf elements. The finish reveals warm earth and cast iron details. A textbook Pauillac. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2026 through 2034.

- J.M.

The 2021 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande wafts from the glass with aromas of blackberries and minty cassis mingled with notes of violet, lavender, pencil shavings and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and polished, it's beautifully seamless and complete, with a fleshy core of fruit, ripe acids and sweet, powdery tannins that assert themselves on the gently structured finish. This will offer a broad drinking window. It's one of the vintage's real successes, but it also represents only one-quarter of a "normal" production.

- William Kelley (02/2024)