Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Pichon-Baron
After Château Mouton-Rothschild it would perhaps make sense to move onto Château Latour and Château Lafite-Rothschild, but I think I would rather follow my enthusiasm in this vintage, and without a doubt that means turning to Château Pichon-Baron.
It was at Château Pichon-Baron that I first found a truly convincing wine in this vintage. It was on the Tuesday of primeurs week, and I had by this time visited a couple of big names, and tasted some decent wines, as well as some that were much less appealing. But they did all feel like wines snatched from the jaws of defeat, wines that had been fashioned and forced into something drinkable, often of moderate appeal at best. The 2013 from Pichon-Baron, however, felt like proper wine. In fact that is what I wrote in my tasting note. We must remember in regione caecorum rex est luscus of course; this is not a great Pichon-Baron, but it is an excellent wine for the vintage. It will drink younger than other vintages from this château, but that is the nature of the vintage; the difference here is that this wine will drink young and give some joy, whereas many other wines will be best drunk in their youth, but it won’t necessarily be any fun doing so.
The story at Pichon-Baron is little different to that presented elsewhere. The team, led by Christian Seely and Jean-René Matignon, reported a cool spring, with budbreak in mid-April, and flowering delayed until the end of June. There was a lot of work in July, debudding and leaf removal to gain as much ripening benefit as possible, and by September it seems the vines had exhibited some catch up. Nevertheless, harvest dates here are similar to those presented elsewhere; the picking began with Merlot, continuing until October 7th, followed by Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot on October 9th and 10th respectively, and finished with the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines between October 11th and the 14th. Jean-René Matignon was particularly pleased with the Petit Verdot this year. This was planted some years ago, but does not usually feature heavily in the wines; this year, however, Les Tourelles is 7% Petit Verdot. Previous vintages have been 2% at most.
