2024 Chateau Pichon Baron 2eme Cru Classe, Pauillac

Beautiful stuff, the 2024 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron has ripe currant and cassis fruit intermixed with classic lead pencil, graphite, and tobacco nuances. It's medium-bodied, with a pure, layered, and elegant mouthfeel, notable tannins, and outstanding length. The 2024 is based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot, hitting 12.7% alcohol with a pH of 3.71.

A dense wine with good richness and concentration. Slightly chewy, with an almost full body and a tight-grained finish. Long, structured and powerful. Not a lighter year for Pichon Baron, thanks to the low yield of just around 20 hectoliters per hectare. 87% cabernet sauvignon and 13% merlot.

The 2024 Pichon Baron is a very sexy wine. Deep and layered on the palate, with fine depth, the 2024 exudes balance. Sumptuous black cherry, mocha, new leather, licorice, menthol, lavender and pine are all dialed up. There's gorgeous breadth and overall presence here. The Cabernet Sauvignon is quite high at 87%, but it is really the wine's balance that speaks loudest. Here, too, the reduction of new oak to 70% really helps the wine speak with precision.

Majors on the fragrant, slim and precise side of Cabernet Sauvignon, waves of cassis bud, rose stems, tobacco leaf and a mouthwatering finish. Don't expect the intensity of 2022 or 2023 at this excellent Pauillac estate, and yet there is impact and slow build through the palate. One of the highest proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon on record, will be ready to drink within five to six years compared to the usual ten to 15. 3.71pH, 70% new oak for ageing, 52% of overall production in the first wine. Harvest 15 September to 10 October, Pierre Montegut technical director, Christian Seely CEO.

Aromatically, the wine expresses its floral side, with violets, and roses before getting to the cocoa, black currants, licorice, smoke, and espresso notes. The palate offers vibrant, soft, and almost creamy red berries, mint leaf, tobacco, and sweet cherries, with notes of spearmint, and chalk at the very end of the finish. Bright, and refined, this modern, classically-styled wine is elegant, forward, and will be available for pleasure with just a few years in the bottle. It has the potential to age for 2-3 decades. The wine blends 87% Cabernet Sauvignon with 13% Merlot. 12.7% ABV, 3.7 pH. The harvest took place September 25 – October 3 for the Merlot. The Cabernet was picked October 3 – October 10. Yields were quite low at only 20 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2029-2055.

The 2024 Pichon-Longueville Baron opens in the glass with aromas of cassis, blackberries, cigar wrappers and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, lively and layered, with a dense core of fruit, tangy acids and powdery tannins, this blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot is a serious young Pauillac that will demand patience.

The 2024 Pichon Baron was aged in 70% new oak. The nose is immediate and well-defined, with mineral-driven black fruit, a touch of pencil box and subtle estuarine scents. It is quintessential Pichon Baron. The palate is fresh and delineated on the entry, endowed with a core of sapid black olive tapenade-infused black fruit. I appreciate the energy that comes through, especially towards the second half, which maintains a sense of symmetry. It will be earlier drinking compared to the 2020 or 2022, but it is a successful Pauillac in the context of the challenging growing season, though it might require a little more time in bottle.

87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot. 52% of the production. Cask sample. Deep colour to the rim. Fine nose with dark-fruit, pencil-lead and spice notes. Well structured, the tannins firm but softened by the fruit. Powerful but has a certain charm. (JL)