Château Pichon Baron: Decline & Recovery
Raoul de Pichon-Longueville died in 1864 and despite having married Marie Marthe Armande Félicité Pétronille de Raymond de la Lande on May 26th 1819 he was without a direct heir, the marriage having been without issue. Thus responsibility for Château Pichon Baron therefore passed to a cousin of Raoul, confusingly also named Raoul. He ran the estate until his death in 1902, bequeathing the property to the next generation. The family thus maintained control of the vineyard for a few more decades but by 1933 it seems that they ran out of potential heirs. The last surviving member of the family, Albert de Pichon-Longueville, sold the estate to Jean Bouteiller (1913 – 1962), proprietor of Château Lanessan (where he was born, and where he died), this very year.
Jean Bouteiller had married into the Mähler family, his father-in-law being Frederik Mähler (1869 – 1952); he was very active in the Bordeaux region, and pops up in the stories of a number of other Bordeaux châteaux. Under his direction Château Pichon Baron continued to enjoy a good reputation, the estate already having survived the succession of devastations that were mildew, phylloxera, war and depression, all of which blighted the vineyards of Europe during the early 20th century. But his death in 1961 marked the beginning of a decline in the fortunes of Château Pichon Baron.
Jean’s wife was Olga Mähler (1918 – 1999) and the union had produced four children, named Maureen, Jacques, Hubert and Laurence. After their father’s death this generation took over the running of the property, but they have been accused by some writers of poor leadership and, like many estates in the region during the post-war era, there was little investment in the property. The siblings held onto the estate for a little over a quarter of a century, but as the 1970s and 1980s came and went it was clear to all that the wines of Château Pichon Baron were not of the quality we should expect of a second growth.
