Château Pibran

The appellation of Pauillac is one of grandeur and scale. That this is true should perhaps not surprise us; after all, ever since Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902 – 1988) succeeded in his campaign to have Château Mouton-Rothschild elevated from deuxième cru to premier cru in 1973, the commune has been home to no less than three of Bordeaux’s five premier grand cru classé estates. These are, of course, the aforementioned Mouton-Rothschild, along with Lafite-Rothschild and Latour. Admittedly, the first growths are not blessed with the grandest residences; those châteaux that sprang up later – especially Pichon Baron and Pichon Comtesse – are more imposing, but they still cut the mustard, particularly Latour with its grand dovecot. Indeed, it is an appellation where even those properties on the lower ranks of the classification, such as Pédesclaux, have a convincing stone-built château.

Another feature of the Pauillac appellation, albeit one inexorably intertwined with the existence of all these grand châteaux, is status; this, like St Julien to the south, is grand cru classé territory. Those estates that made it into the 1855 classification of the Médoc now dominate, the lesser crus – those that might today vie for position in the annually renewed Cru Bourgeois classification (although, it has to be said, very few have bothered in recent years) – are surprisingly small in number. Writing in Bordeaux, Ses Environs et Ses Vins (Féret Fils, 1850), Charles Cocks listed dozens of growers dotted around the various hamlets of Pauillac, including Milon, Bages, Au Pouyalet, Saint Lambert and Pauillac itself. Some had large production volumes, easily matching the big name crus. But whereas many of the leading crus – Canet-Pontet, Mouton-d’Armailhac, Croizet and so on – clearly relate to modern-day château, many of the other crus listed – including Monlerum, Paul Desse, Weltener, Cola, Chollet and others – today seem entirely unfamiliar.

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