2020 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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2020
Château Pichon-Longueville Baron (Pauillac)
With an intensity of color that matches the intensity you taste, and feel, here you find a wine that coats your palate with its multiple layers of rich, dark, deep, black, and dark red fruits coupled with smoke, tobacco, Cuban cigars, spice, dark chocolate, and burning oak embers. This incredible wine is perfectly poised on the corner of power, and intensity with an almost, endless, seamless, regal, and refined finish. This is clearly going to be one of the all-time great vintages of Pichon Baron. Drink from 2028-2065. 6,288 Views Tasted Mar 21, 2023Richly colored with purple around the edges the wine struts its creme de cassis, tobacco, cigar box, earthy, forest floor and peppery spice nose with ease. On the palate the wine is round, polished, sweet, fresh, ripe, long and elegant. This is a refined, classic, potentially forward vintage of Pichon Baron that should start showing quite well with just a decade of aging. The wine was made from blending 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, 13.6% ABV. Yields were only 33 hectoliters per hectare. 97-99 Pts 6,224 Views Tasted May 20, 2021 |
When to Drink Chateau Pichon Baron, Anticipated Maturity, Decanting Time
Chateau Pichon Baron is not a wine to drink on the young side. The wine is usually far too tannic, powerful, and backward during its youth. Young vintages can be decanted for an average of 3-6 hours, give or take. This allows the wine to soften and open its perfume. Older vintages might need very little decanting, just enough to remove the sediment.
Chateau Pichon Baron is usually better with at least 15 years of bottle age. Of course, that can vary slightly, depending on the vintage character. Chateau Pichon Baron offers its best drinking and should reach peak maturity between 15 and 50 years of age after the vintage.
Serving Chateau Pichon Baron with Wine and Food Pairings
Chateau Pichon Baron is best served at 15.5 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool, almost cellar temperature gives the wine more freshness and lift.
Chateau Pichon Baron is best paired with all types of classic meat dishes, veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised, and grilled dishes. Chateau Pichon Baron is also good when matched with Asian dishes, and rich fish courses like tuna, salmon, mushrooms and pasta.
The estate made two changes starting with the 2012 vintage. Consumers are now able to go to the website for the chateau and use the visual recognition system that is now placed on the bottles on both on the capsule and back label.
Each capsule and back label has a unique code they can enter into the website to show if their bottle is authentic and the consumer can also know where the wine was initially sold, as a way to guarantee its authenticity. It's a step in the right direction that helps fight wine fraud and counterfeiting.
Additionally, the same technical team that is responsible for Chateau Pichon Baron produces Cap Royal. A quick glance at the label will remind you of the relationship. Cap Royal is available as a Merlot-dominated wine from Bordeaux Superieur.
Cap Royal is also available as a white Bordeaux wine made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Cap Royal is a true value Bordeaux wine. Interestingly, Cap Royal is a certified vegan wine.