Tasting Notes
Robert Parker 98
The 1990 Pichon-Longueville Baron has always been one of my benchmark wines, one that never ceases to perform. Now at 27 years of age, it is clearly at its peak, and what a wondrous thing it is. Now showing some bricking on the rim, the bouquet is utterly sublime, with red berries, cedar, touches of graphite, crushed rose petals and incense. You just want to become enveloped by these aromas. The palate is perfectly balanced, perhaps not as structured as it once showed since the tannins have mellowed, but what you get is a Pauillac relishing its secondary phase, which is almost Burgundy-like in terms of mouthfeel. Suffused with tension, it gains weight in the mouth toward the slightly tart finish. It is a Pichon Baron that only knows how to give sophisticated drinking pleasure. I once wrote that Pichon Baron is better than many 1990 First Growth, and that is a statement I have no reason to change. Tasted April 2017.
Anticipated maturity: 2017-2035
Vinous 96
The 1990 Pichon-Baron is a sensational wine that must have had the First Growth rattled when it was released. At 28 years old, it is still reveling in its precocious growing season. The multidimensional bouquet features blackberry, graphite, cedar and mint flanked by iodine and warm gravel on a summer day. Wow! The palate is medium-bodied, delivering a mixture of red and black fruit, a fine mineral undercurrent and a long, precise finish: blackberry, cedar and graphite remain in the mouth for a good 60 seconds. Still a fabulous Pauillac after all these years. Tasted at the Pichon-Baron vertical at the château.
Anticipated maturity: 2018-2040
JancisRobinson.com 18
Still dark blackish crimson core but a ruby rim. Firm colour. Classic cedary nose and very fluid and juicy. Spicy finish and not as intensely fruity as it once was.A few lightly dusty tannins in the back ground. Very appetising though. Good fragrance. Opened up in the glass to become an absolutely classic left bank claret with just the right amount of fruit and an appetising but not painful dry cedary finish. Tasted alongside Troplong Mondot, it was a very worthy, delightful representative of fine Médoc. I can’t see it getting any better though. Fruit is gentle fading.
Anticipated maturity: 2002-2018
