2023 Pichon Baron
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Tasting Notes
This is a typically firm and muscular wine in 2023. The nose is spicy and intense with concentrated fruit. It’s powerful, rich, and a little stern in structure at this youthful stage, but with a tightly packed core and juiciness to balance it. This will need time, but has everything to go the distance. Aged in 70% new oak, with 13.2% alcohol and 3.7pH. Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
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The Grand Vin 2023 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron checks in as a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, raised in 70% new French oak, with the balance in once-used oak. Cassis, black raspberries, spice oak, graphite, and almost a bloody, salty, incredibly mineral character are followed by a medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, and concentrated red, with a deep purple hue, nicely integrated acidity, and beautiful yet building tannins.
If you like a great cigar, you came to the right place as the first thing you notice is the cigar box, and tobacco wrapper nuances before moving to the smoke, leafy herb, creme de cassis, blackberries, spice, flowers, and forest floor in the perfume. The palate is even better with its multiple layers of black, with red fruits, mouthfuls of fresh, ripe, chewy, red berries, Indian spice, and a lingering finish that holds your focus for at least 50 seconds. The key to the vintage was patience during harvesting to achieve phenolic ripeness. This is the quintessential example of a classic, modern Bordeaux. The wine blends 80% Cabernet Sauvignon with 20% Merlot. 13.2% ABV, 3.7 pH. The harvest took place September 17 for the Merlot, ending October 4 with the Cabernet. 44% of the harvest went into the Grand Vin.
The 2023 Pichon Baron is deep garnet-purple in color. After a swirl or two, the nose erupts with classic scents of cassis, juicy plums, and redcurrant jelly followed by fragrant nuances of lilacs, camphor, and crushed rock plus a waft of wild thyme. The medium-bodied palate is tightly knit, with impressive tension and fine-grained tannins framing the black berry flavors accented by fragrant herbs and floral notes, finishing long and mineral-laced. The blend is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, with pH 3.70. It is aging in oak barriques, 70% new.
About the producer
Pauillac’s Ch. Pichon Baron, formerly known as Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, is ranked as one of the 15 Second Growths from the 1855 Classification and is considered one of the "Super Seconds".