By: AJ McClellan
It’s no secret that one of our favorite wines here at Graileys is Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. So when our good buddy Dominique told us that he had taken over the importing of this great house we decided that where would be no better way to celebrate than to throw a grand Pichon party. With 6 vintages of Pichon from five different decades we had the makings of a great night ahead of us.
We started the tasting with good old 1964 Pichon Lalande. After 46 years in the bottle this wine was soft and silky with a surprising amount of fruit left on the palate; showing overripe red currants and raspberries. The wine had exceptional balance with a great minerality backed by fertile damp soil and a hint of barnyard. There was a surprising amount of tannin left in the wine bringing structure to the soft blanket of velvet that cotes the mouth upon sipping this wine.
Next in the lineup was the 1979 Pichon Lalande. I have been lucky enough to try this bottle on several occasions and it has always been in the running for, if not the wine of the night. I think that the 79 and 75 Pichon Lalande’s are really hitting their stride right now and will be climaxing over the next 5 years… That being said, unfortunately, the 79 was not showing well last night… What is normally a full, rich, luscious wine was disconjointed and rather two dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great wine but in the company of the 64 it was not drinking as well as I thought it would. All that being said I still have full confidence in this bottle; I simply feel that it has hit a dip in its maturing process. I am sure we will have a chance to try it again in a month or two and I think that the wine will come back strong when next we open it.
The last wine of the first flight was the 1988 Pichon Lalande. In the past the 88 has been hit and miss with me, sometimes showing well and sometimes a little thin. However, last night the 88 was drinking magnificently showing young vibrant fruit with a mélange of dried flowers, old creaky barnyard rafters, freshly planted garden, and a touch of tarnished horseshoes on the back end. This was a great little wine that went from strength to strength while in the glass.
After the first flight we broke for dinner prepared by Derrick Paez which was fantastic. Everything was cooked to perfection and matched beautifully with the remaining Pichon everyone had in their glasses.