Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1991

The 1991 Pichon-Lalande has an autumnal bouquet: roasted chestnut, smoke, loam and decaying leaves coming through. Not impactful, but this is quite elegant and full of charm. The palate is medium-bodied with a supple opening, and here, maybe the shortcomings of the growing season are more obvious since this is rather one-dimensional. Yet there is a presence and negligible signs of greenness. It actually coheres towards the finish with just a touch of pepper on the aftertaste. Fine. Tasted at the "Difficult Vintage" vertical at the château.

92: barrel sample (14/20): 65% Merlot, 35% Cabernet, 50% new oak, 3 g acidity, 60 g tannins, yield 14 hl/ha. Harvest began on October 1. Everything was picked within eight days: warm nose with wood-toast roast notes, rock candy. On the palate very flattering, full, with a peppery acidic play (chili), then an accompanying geraniol note, presence of unripe tannins, green skins aroma. Despite plenty of fat, it’s actually more of an ’84 type. After this very unflattering verdict, Monsieur Lopez agreed to let me taste directly from barrel, because I found the sample tired and almost oxidized. To the base aromas were added blueberries and a fine smoky note. The wine, however, is far too Merlot-driven, because the old Merlot parcel located right next to Latour was spared from frost. 03: This is the first time in my life that a ’91 gets upgraded! In a set of six, 6 different vintages of Pichon-Lalande sparkled. I would never have guessed that the darkest one would be the long-maligned ’91. The wine certainly lacks warmth, but it still shows a surprising amount of flesh and still delivers some life-insuring tannins. 16/20 drink up

Pichon Comtesse and Palmer. We were hoping for Palmer’s class, but Pichon Comtesse won out on the nose and palate. Of course, we considered that this might be a bottle of Palmer not quite at its usual best. The freshness of Pichon Comtesse is truly surprising. The wine is opening up. In its youth, it didn’t have this level of class. For the past two years, it has been in top form. I would note that in the vertical tasting, this vintage had eclipsed ’89 or ’90! Delicious.

Pichon-Lalande's 1991 is among the few 1991s worthy of being the “wine of the vintage.” Only 30% of the harvest went into the final wine, resulting in a deeper-colored, richer, more concentrated, and more complex wine than the 1990, which was atypically light—even for the elegant Pichon-Lalande style. The 1991, which has plenty of tannin, shows an opaque, deep ruby/purple color and a sweet nose of chocolate, cedar, and ripe, plummy blackcurrant fruit. Round, medium to full-bodied, and opulent (atypical for a 1991), this wine finishes with considerable length and authority. Drink it over the next 10–15 years. The 1991 Pichon-Lalande is one of the stars of the vintage!