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 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 but by 1933 they seem to have run out of potential heirs. The last surviving member of the family, Albert de Pichon-Longueville, sold the estate to Jean Bouteiller (born 1913), proprietor of Château Lanessan, this very year.
Under the management of Jean Bouteiller 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. It seems that Jean’s children were young and inexperienced, and there was a deficit of leadership and investment. They held onto the estate for a little over a quarter of a century. As the 1970s and 1980s came and went it was clear to all that the wines made at Château Pichon-Baron lacked the quality that we should expect of a second growth. Fermentation temperatures were uncontrolled, macerations were excessively lengthy, and the wine was bottled in the courtyard with no control over the environment. This was the state of affairs when I first became interested in wine; Château Pichon-Baron was a famous name that you could nevertheless comfortably overlook without fear that you might be missing out on something, in contrast to the wines made on the other side of the road, at Château Pichon-Lalande, which were frequently of tip-top quality. The estate was crying out for new investment and new leadership. It was at this point that AXA Millésimes became involved.
