Château Pichon Comtesse
The twin estates of Château Pichon Baron and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, the latter more commonly known either as Château Pichon Comtesse or Château Pichon Lalande (the wine was labelled simply as Château Pichon Lalande through to the 1970s, although Pichon Comtesse is the more widely used of the two monikers), sit on the very edge of the Pauillac appellation. Both are, of course, derived from the one estate, listed in early classifications and texts simply as Pichon. As elsewhere, inheritance and division went hand-in-hand, giving us the two Pichons we have today.
These two estates are, at the time of writing, turning out two superb grands vins (plus other wines of course – a variety of second wines and even white wines these days), although it has not always been so. Both estates have experienced their ups and downs through history, but in both cases committed leadership and a willingness to invest has brought them to the very top of their game. And rightly so, as they share some very prestigious terroir. Butted up against the border with St Julien, the vineyards in this southern slice of the Pauillac appellation belong exclusively to Latour, Pichon Comtesse and Pichon Baron, a huge sweep of high-quality and high-value viticultural real estate running from the edge of the palus and the Gironde as far inland as the Médoc’s solitary railway line, and beyond. The vineyards of these three estates are stretched, from west to east, across 4 kilometres, admittedly with a little break in the western reaches, near the railway line, for the vineyards of Batailley, Haut-Batailley and Lynch-Bages.
The two wines are distinctly different in character; here at Château Pichon Comtesse, under the management of Nicolas Glumineau on behalf of Roederer (yes, the Champagne house), we can expect wines of vibrancy, purity seduction and intensity. They have been good for years. I would say under Nicolas they are the best they have ever been.
In this profile I will of course explore every aspect of how this has been achieved, with a deep dive into recent developments as well as the soils, the harvest and the winemaking. But first, as always, I present a history of the property, an account I believe to be unrivalled in terms of detail, accuracy and fact. I follow the estate’s history over this and the next three pages. For more detail on the vines and wines, and all my tasting notes, see the last two pages of this profile.
Rauzan and Pichon
The early history of Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande naturally matches that of its twin sibling, Château Pichon Baron, the two having both been originated – as mentioned above – from the great Pichon estate. The story begins with Bernard de Pichon-Longueville, the son of François de Pichon and Catherine de Bavolier. Bernard assumed the Barony of Longueville when he married Anne Daffis de Longueville in 1646. Together they had two sons; the first was François (born 1647), Baron de Parempuyre, and the second was Jacques François de Pichon (1649 – 1731), Baron de Longueville. Both, like their father Bernard, were successful parliamentarians in Bordeaux; they had titles, wealth and influence. Of the two sons it is Jacques François who is of interest; he went on to marry Thérèse de Rauzan (born 1672), daughter of Pierre des Mesures de Rauzan (died 1692).
