About 3/4 Cabernet Sauvignon, with the rest a blend of mostly Merlot and some Cabernet Franc.
A "nearly First Growth" wine, the Pichon-Lalande Grand Vin has always been a Pauillac wine with a distinctive and expressive character. Full bodied, chewy, with a long finish, it is a wine of both structure and elegance. Floral, fruity and spicy, it has the power of Pauillac and the grace of the namesake Comtesse. Deep but precise, it reveals more with every sniff and every sip.
The 2014 in particular went through a long and hot summer, and the estate's longest harvest to date. The grapes really delivered: the Merlot is powerful and generous, the Cabernet Sauvignon perfectly mature. Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot developed great aromatic complexity. The 2014 Pichon-Lalande has a well-defined tannic structure worthy of great Pauillac, in balance with a very "Comtesse" complex aromatic expression.
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is one of Bordeaux’s greatest wine estates. Founded by Pierre de Rauzan in 1689, it has been owned by the Pichon-Longueville family since 1694. Born in 1760, in the reign of Louis XV, Joseph de Pichon-Longueville witnessed France’s three revolutions, five kings, two republics, and one empire. Through his work and commitment over 70 years, Joseph built a magnificent estate. In 1850, Virginie de Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, and her sisters inherited some 30 hectares and grew the magnificent estate that still bears her name. Shortly after, in 1855, the château was classified as a Second Growth.
In 1925, the Miailhe family took over, and the global reputation of the estate only continued to grow thanks to the quality of its wine. In 2007, control passed on to Champagne Louis Roederer, a family-owned company managed by Frédéric Rouzaud. The third family in three centuries now presides over the destiny of Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, with the aim of perpetuating the excellence of this great Pauillac wine.
The Médoc stretches north of Bordeaux, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde Estuary. It is a remarkable region with particularly poor soils, consisting of gravel rises on clay subsoil. These light, well-drained soils provide ideal conditions for the vines to reveal the outstanding quality of the terroir, under the protective influence of a highly favorable microclimate.
Pichon Comtesse has 102 hectares under vine in a privileged location, a stone’s throw from the Gironde Estuary, in the southern part of the Pauillac appellation. Comprising over 100 vineyard plots, it gives pride of place to the star grape variety of the Médoc, Cabernet-Sauvignon, as well as Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.
