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I loved this bottle of 1982 Cos d’Estournel, and it was easily the best bottle I’ve had of this wine, which has always shown slightly tired and over the hill for me. It shows classic, even youthful notes of lead pencil, currants and saddle leather, was full-bodied, had beautiful depth of fruit, and a great, great finish, all pointing to a fully mature yet grand Saint Estephe. Drink up.Jeb Dunnuck | 97 JDThis 1982 is still displaying a beautiful deep ruby/purple hue as well as a stunning set of aromatics consisting of blue and black fruits, loamy earth, flowers, licorice, and spice box. The wine is medium to full-bodied with sweet tannins, a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and a silky finish. It appears to have hit full maturity, but it can easily be held in a cold cellar for another 10+ years.Robert Parker | 95 RPThe 1982 Cos d’Estournel is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. I have always fallen for the aromatics of this 1982: roasted chestnut and a touch of aniseed that combines effortlessly with the melted red berry fruit, touches of tar developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, perhaps not quite as extravagant as it showed a few years ago, but there is genuine depth and grip here. There is that lovely savory, lightly spiced finish and a very persistent aftertaste that is thoroughly enjoyable after 36 years. This is a wonderful 1982 that will give pleasure for many more years. Tasted at the Cos d’Estournel vertical at the property.Vinous Media | 95 VMBuilt for aging. Very dark ruby in color, with a garnet rim. Dried flower and berry aromas. Full-bodied and very solid, with masses of fruit and tannins. Still has plenty of time to go.--1982 Bordeaux horizontal.Wine Spectator | 95 WS

The finest bottle I’ve had of this wine (which came from the estate), the 1982 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou continues to drink brilliantly and is a magical Saint-Julien. Still healthy ruby hued with a mature yet insanely complex bouquet of sweet red and black fruits, cedary herbs, graphite, tobacco, and forest floor, it’s powerful yet seamless on the palate, with resolved tannins, no hard edges, and a fabulous finish. This is mature Bordeaux in all its glory. Drink bottles any time over the coming two decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 97 JD"The harvest lasted 16 days from the 16th September," proprietor Bruno Borie mentioned about the 1982 Ducru-Beaucaillou. Medium brick colored, it comes galloping out of the glass with bold, expressive notes of Black Forest cake, preserved plums and mincemeat pie with hints of cigar box, star anise, eucalyptus and espresso plus wafts of roasted nuts and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, generous and opulent, the palate has beautifully ripe, fine-grained tannins and tons of youthful fruit, finishing with epically long-lasting layers of preserved black fruits and exotic spices.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RP(Château Ducru-Beaucaillou) The 1982 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou remains one of the very finest wines of the vintage on the Left Bank and it is just now starting to blossom properly and hit on all cylinders. The bouquet is pure and displays First Growth depth and complexity, soaring from the glass in a fine constellation of sweet cassis and dark berries, a very complex base of gravelly soil tones, Cuban cigar wrapper, gentle smokiness and a deftly turned base of smoky new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and sappy at the core, with stellar focus and balance, still a touch of ripe tannin perking up the backend and a very, very long, refined and complex finish. This is a great, great vintage of Ducru that may one day rival the near perfection of the 1961. (Drink between 2018-2075).John Gilman | 97 JGThis is a wine that I had forgotten about. It shows beautiful sweet tobacco, flowers, and currants on the nose. It’s full body, silky with fine tannins. It’s ready and pretty. Served from imperial bottle.James Suckling | 93 JSThis Ducru ’82 has always been a beauty. Dark ruby in color, with a slight amber edge. Very fresh and floral, with loads of berry and rose character. Medium-bodied, with a good balance of soft tannins and a caressing finish.--1982 Bordeaux horizontal. Drink now.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

Absolutely spectacular, the1990 Leoville Poyferre is much more evolved than either of its two Leoville neighbors. Its opaque plum/garnet color is accompanied by a gorgeous bouquet of smoke, charcoal, creme de cassis, and flowers. Fleshy and opulent, it comes across like a St.-Julien with a Pomerol texture and allure. This beauty has reached full maturity where it should remain for another two decades.Robert Parker | 97 RPThe nose lifts right out of the glass and reminds the world how Bordeaux can age. You’ll find chocolate, hazelnut, plum, soft liquorice root; a wonderful testament to a brilliant vintage, delivering on its potential even three decades later. I love the softness of the tannins and the freshness at close of play – daring you to suggest when it is going to finally bow out. This is exactly what people look for in older Bordeaux. Smudged around the edges but a core of pure fruit expression, fully integrated with melted oak notes. Drinking Window 2018 - 2030.Decanter | 96 DECA chewy wine, with impressively rich aromas and flavors of ripe plum, tobacco, cedar and earth aromas and flavors and attractive, velvety tannins.Wine Spectator | 92 WSDeep red-ruby. Remarkably complex aromas of chestnuts, earth, truffle, shoe polish and a cigar-box nuance. Suave, intensely flavored fruit; a very youthful, sharply defined and thoroughly delicious wine of great finesse. Finishes firm and long. Our favorite Poyferré since the ’83. The three Léovilles are stunning—and completely different in style—in 1990. 91(+?), use more clarity and nuance. Should be accessible early.Vinous Media | 90 VM

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.Robert Parker Neal Martin | 98 RP-NMThe 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.Vinous Media | 96 VMApproaching its 26th birthday, this has an enticing grilled-fruit nose and still feels full of vivacity. The tertiary flavours are showing through with tobacco and hay, but are accompanied by welcoming cooked blackberry fruits. This is the exact blend of elegance and power that you want in an old Médoc. Full of crackling autumnal pleasure. 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot. Drinking Window 2016 - 2025Decanter | 95 DECMore tobacco and cedar character on the nose, with hints of ripe fruit. Full-bodied, yet fine and sophisticated, with elegant tannins and a long finish. This is always a top-quality red. ’89/’90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal. Drink now.Wine Spectator | 94 WS(Château Pichon Longueville Baron) The 1990 Pichon Baron is a superb example of the vintage and a wine that has the depth of fruit at the core to age very gracefully. The deep, complex and still quite youthful nose offers up scents of cassis, black cherries, cigar smoke, gravelly soil, coffee bean and toasty new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and impressively pure on the attack, with fine complexity, a superb core, melting tannins and outstanding length and grip on the focused and classy finish. This wine is fresher and less roasted than many of the 1990s are today, and is already starting to drink very well indeed. Fine juice and one of the stellar successes from the vintage. (Drink between 2012-2050)John Gilman | 94 JG

Composed of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the medium to deep garnet-brick colored 2000 Ducru-Beaucaillou charges out of the gate with flamboyant scents of baked black currants, raisin cake, prunes, Chinese five spice and eucalyptus plus touches of cigar box, new leather and cast iron pan. Medium-bodied, the palate is remarkably refreshing with all these decadent spice and dried berries layers coating the palate, textured by soft, powdery tannins, finishing long and mineral laced. Stunning!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RPI must admit that I was a little unimpressed with the Ducru 2000 in the beginning when I tasted it after bottling in 2003. But it’s clearly outstanding now and seems to get better and better with age. It shows wonderful aromas of roses and currants with hints of mint. It’s full body yet very finely textured with pretty fruit concentration and length.James Suckling | 96 JSThis has mature hints, but there’s great focus as the cedar, bay and leather notes race along with, rather than pull away from, the core of fig and blackberry fruit flavors. The long, bittersweet cocoa–dusted finish provides a solid bass line.—Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2023. 17,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WS(Château Ducru-Beaucaillou) The 2000 vintage in Bordeaux is generally in a pretty sullen point of its evolution at the moment, but the 2000 Ducru-Beaucaillou was actually still showing a lot of charm and polish to its powerful veneer at our vertical tasting in Saarbrücken in late March. The bouquet is deep, ripe and classically pure in the Ducru style, offering up scents of cassis, black cherries, gravelly soil tones, tobacco leaf, a touch of dried herbs and still plenty of spicy new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite sappy at the core, with modest acids, firm, ripe tannins, fine focus and nascent complexity and a very long, youthful and tannic finish that still needs a few more years to fully integrate its new wood component. This is still at least a decade away from blossoming and the real fireworks with this excellent vintage of Ducru will not start for another twenty years! A fine example. (Drink between 2022-2075)John Gilman | 94 JGBright ruby-red, less saturated than the 2002. Very pure aromas of cassis, minerals and mocha, with a hint of raw berries. Juicy, pure and tightly wound, with intense flavors of dark berries, bitter chocolate, espresso and licorice. Broadens impressively on the long, aromatic, suave finish, showing lovely grip and class. Finer than Borie’s 2000 Grand Puy Lacoste and in need of longer aging but not clearly stronger.Vinous Media | 92+ VM

Sitting next to my former colleague, Pierre Antoine Rovani, at one of the tastings, he commented that he didn’t like the striking green note in the aromatics of this wine, which I didn’t detect at all, and a subsequent bottle at another tasting did not reveal it either. I do think there is a hint of bay leaf and a meatiness to it. In short, I find this to be a spectacular Pichon Lalande. Dense purple in color, with loads of coffee, mocha, creme de cassis, and chocolate notes, this is a somewhat unusual blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and a whooping 10% Petit Verdot, with a little bit of Cabernet Franc. The Petit Verdot certainly gives the wine more of a tapenade, floral note, which I think can be interpreted by some as herbal. This is a rich, opulent, stunning Pichon Lalande that is beginning to drink beautifully, yet should continue to improve for at least another 10-15 years and last 30 or more years.Robert Parker | 96 RPOf all the 2000s tasted in the line-up, this was the one that was most evolved, with melted tannins and exotic saffron spice notes. It’s a beautiful wine, very classic Pauillac, full of tertiary hints of truffle, soft menthol and undergrowth - signatures of an older Bordeaux wine that is wonderful to drink now. It’s probably the most perfect of the five for cracking open over the next few years but may not have the staying power of the others. Interesting to note how much higher the pH is here (3.85) than Leoville (3.5) considering it’s practically next door. 10% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Harvest 21 September 21 to 9 October. Drinking Window 2019 - 2038Decanter | 96 DECMadame de Lencquesaing’s estate has produced a stunner in 2000. The perfumes, delicate and sensuous, give it class, style and make it very memorable. It is delicious now, but there are tannins there, and deep, intense fruit flavors, waiting to develop slowly and surely.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThis has pronounced bay and cassis bush aromas that impart lots of peppery and herbaceous lift, but this is hardly on the lean side as there’s a well of gorgeously pure currant and blackberry fruit notes at the core. The finish is sleek and glistening as an iron note takes over.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2028.Wine Spectator | 95 WSLot of currants and berries with a slightly stewed-fruit character. It’s full and round with soft tannins and a fruity finish. Needs to be decanted an hour or two before serving. Succulent wine.James Suckling | 93 JSThe 2000 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has a strong minty bouquet that perhaps slightly overwhelms the terroir expression. I believe this comes from a high proportion of Petit Verdot (14%) that would have probably been eschewed nowadays. The palate is medium-bodied with intense black plummy fruit mixed with graphite and sage. This is a muscular though enjoyable Pichon, dense and almost brawny toward the finish, but what is missing is a sense of elegance and precision. Just a touch of greenness shows on the finish (in a positive way). A forceful Pauillac that will benefit from decanting.Vinous Media | 92 VM(Château Pichon-Lalande) I had liked my last bottle of the 2000 Pichon-Lalande a bit better than this recent bottle at our vertical tasting, and I wonder if it was more a function of the context this time around, as this wine was the only really blunt vintage in our lineup, and perhaps in a different setting (like a horizontal tasting of the vintage in the Médoc?), I might have come away a bit more favorably impressed. It is not that the 2000 Pichon-Lalande is a bad wine by any stretch of the imagination, but the inherent elegance of this great estate is not self-evident in this vintage of the wine. The bouquet is starting to blossom, offering up notes of sweet cassis, currant leaf, cigar wrapper, gravel, smoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, chewy and rock solid at the core, with good focus and grip, well-integrated tannins and a long, powerful finish. This is a very good wine and perhaps, the customary charm of Pichon will emerge further on down the road, but for now, I have to rank it in the good, but not great vintages of Pichon-Lalande. If it develops the property’s typical elegance with further aging (and which is certainly within the realm of possibility, as the wine is still quite adolescent today), then my score will seem conservative, but I am not certain that this will come to pass. (Drink between 2025-2075)John Gilman | 92+ JGNo written review provided. | 92 W&S

Extremely lively palate, really quite bright, bold, powerful, chewy tannins fill the mouth but you get such power and concentration here. Feels more alive, slightly linear than the 2008, real tension still, so lively with energy that shoots across the palate. Such depth and just so drinkable. Tannins are mouth filling no doubt, they completely cover the mouth but so expressive, and elegant. Such refinement here but also such power. Only just at the start of its drinking window but one to carry on ageing, . First vintage with Didier Thormann as cellar master. 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot.Decanter | 97 DECVery clear and translucent with currants, blueberries and fresh mushrooms. Full-bodied with velvety tannins that are layered and beautiful. Together and polished with plushness and beauty. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 96 JSThis wine’s heady rush of flavor gave one taster goosebumps. She called it sexy. ’Formidable.’ Other technical descriptions included ’the shazam,’ ’has zazz,’ and ’unprintable. That’s some serious s#¡†.’ At the en primeur tastings, this ap­peared to be chunky and superripe. Now it’s massive, with dark extract and exotic spice, a sophisticated wine that ends on sweetness, bitter chocolate and dark berry fruit. With all the flash, it will give a lot of pleasure as a young wine, but it has the plump Poyferré terroir drive to sustain that pleasure for years to come.Wine & Spirits | 95 W&SHugely concentrated and packed with tannins, this wine shows considerable amounts of dark, extracted fruit. It wins out on impressive power, driving the fruit through the tannins, giving great richness.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WELéoville Poyferré’s dense ruby/purple 2005 is soft, round and juicy, with lots of blackcurrant fruit, plum and Asian spice. It is medium to full-bodied and, along with Léoville Las Cases and Saint-Pierre, probably one of the best St.-Juliens I tasted in this retrospective. It is surprisingly supple and accessible. Drink it over the next 15 or so years.Robert Parker | 93 RPThe 2005 Léoville-Poyferré really needed a number of hours to come together. An old school, powerful Saint-Julien, the 2005 Léoville-Poyferré packs a serious punch. Inky dark red fruit, iron, smoke, cedar, mint and white pepper lend striking aromatic depth. This virile, tannic Saint-Julien is a bruiser, but it is also pretty impressive. Tasting it feels like taking a step back in time.Antonio Galloni | 93 AGDark ruby red in color, with aromas of currant, blackberry, toasty oak and light cappuccino. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a beautiful, caressing aftertaste. Touches every part of the palate. Outstanding, but slightly disappointing after such a great showing from barrel. Best after 2009. 18,915 cases made.Wine Spectator | 92 WS

The 2005 Rauzan-Ségla is captivating right from the very first taste. Soaring aromatics and bright veins of minerality confer energy to this statuesque Margaux. The 2005 is still a very young wine. In fact, I would cellar it for a few years. I am blown away by its energy, vibrant and sheer character. Bright red-toned fruit, spice, rose petal, blood orange and crushed rocks literally soar out of the glass. The 2005 captures the richness of the year, but it remains a classically built, mid-weight wine of remarkable freshness and tension. Rauzan-Ségla might very well be the most under the radar Left Bank wine in 2005. Magnificent.Vinous Media | 97 VMVery beautiful aromas of crushed berry, flowers, currant and Indian spices follow through to a full body, with ultrafine tannins and a long, long finish. Extremely polished and beautiful, with a seamless texture. Best after 2014. 10,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 97 WSThis is showing really well right now with an exuberance and richness that verges on extravagance. It’s full body, firmly textured with a ripe and rich fruit too. So much berry, spice, chocolate and incense character. Love to drink it now but a long life ahead of it.James Suckling | 97 JSA wine with a beautiful mouthfeel and shape. This is rich, gleaming in the ripe black fruits, the touch of spice and mint, as well as the sweet blackberry flavors. The acidity is balanced, showing off the fruit. There is weight and density as well. Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEOne distinguishing factor of this vintage is that it managed to create a wine such as this: a finely tailored, seamless Margaux that has the textural caress of silk while its tannins explode in a long, slow roundhouse punch so that you don’t notice them until they are all that you see. And yet it doesn’t feel crass or aggressive. The spiciness of the wine brings anise to mind; the flavor depth carries dark fruit into mineral territory. Completely of a piece, Rauzan is significantly more expressive than it was en primeur. This has an unaffected stamina that will keep it going for 25 years or more.Wine & Spirits Magazine | 96 W&SDeep garnet in color, the 2005 Rauzan-Ségla sings of plum preserves, redcurrant jelly, raspberry pie, kirsch and blackcurrant cordial with nuances of dried lavender, rose hip tea, hoisin and incense. The medium to full-bodied palate is densely packed with rich, expansive black fruits with loads of incense and exotic spice sparks, finishing long and layered. Still quite youthful, I anticipate a long life ahead for this perfumed beauty!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPThe finest wine made at this estate since 2000, the 2005 Rauzan-Ségla checks in as a brilliant blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It has a touch of lightening at the rim, but it’s still youthfully ruby-colored and offers a fabulous bouquet of cassis, toasted spices, dried tobacco, and graphite. It has lots of sweet tannins, a full-bodied, opulent mouthfeel, terrific density, and a great finish. It has some maturity and is drinking great today, yet I’d say it has upwards of another two decades of longevity. It’s a beautiful wine and one of the gems in the lineup.Jeb Dunnuck | 95 JD

Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is a little reticent to begin, slowly giving way to notions of warm black cherries, blackcurrant cordial, stewed plums and sautéed herbs with hints of damp soil, tobacco and beef drippings. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with tightly wound black fruit and earthy layers, framed by ripe, fine-grained tannins and lovely freshness making for a long, lively finish. Classic!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97+ RPRoederer Estates had owned Pichon Comtesse for three years prior to the 2009 vintage, having taken over in 2006, with Gildas d’Ollone as managing director and Thomas Do-Chi-Nam as technical director. Together, they created a stunning, lyrical 2009 that just begs to be savoured. It’s ripe and intense, rippling with juicy blackberry and blackcurrant fruit and touches of violet on the nose. A beautifully balanced wine. Drinking Window 2021 - 2046Decanter | 97 DECWhat a great nose of blackberries, currants and spices. Hints of fresh herbs. Full body, with ultra-fine tannins and lovely fruit. Such finesse and beauty. Wonderful to taste. Reminds me of the legendary 1982. Try in 2018.James Suckling | 96 JSA seductive wine, deliciously ripe with the softest, juiciest fruit over smoky new wood. The wine shows intense fruit as well as a soft Merlot core. The tannins are beautifully integrated in this ripely sweet wine.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEThe 2009 Pichon-Lalande offers copious scents of boysenberry, cassis and blue fruit on the nose, a little smudged compared to the Pichon Baron but very pure. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, very rounded in the mouth thanks to the precocious Merlot content, sage and orange rind developing towards the caressing finish. A very sensual Pichon-Lalande, tempting. A great wine although the 2010 has the upper hand. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits’ Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 94 VMThe ripe red currant, blackberry and boysenberry fruit is layered with black licorice snap, fruitcake and plum sauce notes. Has the fleshier edge of the vintage but retains a solidly racy graphite spine through the finish. A step behind the ’10 in density and energy, though hardly a slouch.--Non-blind Pichon Lalande vertical (July 2014). Best from 2018 through 2035. 15,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS(Château Pichon-Lalande) The 2009 Pichon Lalande is cut from the same slinky, sumptuous cloth as the 2009 Lafite-Rothschild, which should not be surprising, as this is a style that was mastered at Pichon Lalande as far back as the 1982. The nose is deep, complex and quite ripe, as it offers up scents of dark berries, espresso, tobacco leaf, gravelly soil tones, fresh herbs and plenty of smoky, nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very plush and velvety on the attack, with a fine core of fruit, excellent length and focus and a ripely tannic and decidedly low acid finish. I cannot think of any previous vintage of Pichon Lalande that shared the 2009’s combination of substantial tannins and extremely low acids- it will be very interesting to see how this wine evolves over time. My score may be just a tad conservative, but I do not have any experience with how a wine structured like this will evolve with extended bottle age. (Drink between 2018-2040)John Gilman | 90-92+ JG

Reminding me of the 1990, the 2015 Château Pichon Baron is a sensational bottle of wine made from 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot that spent 18 months in 80% new French oak. Boasting a deep purple color as well as awesome notes of black raspberries, toasted spices, cassis, lead pencil shavings, tobacco leaf and building minerality, this full-bodied, concentrated 2015 has sweet tannin, a great texture, and a big, big finish. Pauillac all the way, with both opulence and finesse, forget bottles of 4-5 years and enjoy anytime over the following two to three decades. This is a match for the 2009, 2000, and 1990.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDThis is one of the great successes of this vintage. It is generous and rich while also solid and structured. The combination of the essence of black currant and the elegant tannic structure are superb. This is a wine for serious aging and the wine should not be broached before 2026.Wine Enthusiast | 98 WEMedium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Pichon-Longueville Baron is enticingly scented of chocolate-covered cherries, crushed red currants and mulberries with touches of baking spices, potpourri and bay leaves plus a hint of fallen leaves. Sumptuously elegant, refreshing and medium-bodied with gorgeous, expressive, perfumed red fruits and very fine, very firm tannins, it has a persistent, perfumed finish. Its remarkable intensity, freshness and very firm frame suggest a long-lived Pichon Baron, which should cellar gracefully for 30+ years.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RPA dramatic, sweeping wine, the Pichon-Longueville Baron is even better from bottle than it was from barrel. The 2015 is dense, plush and totally voluptuous as it sweeps across the palate to make its presence known. Nuanced and poised, with seemingly endless layers of nuance, the 2015 is super-impressive. A melange of dark red/purplish fruit, lavender, mint, spice and rose petal builds as this towering, dramatic Pauillac shows off its allure. In 2015, Pichon Baron is endowed with spectacular balance and class. This is quite simply a brilliant showing from the 2015.Antonio Galloni | 97 AGBrimming with confidence, it’s not as obviously delectable right now as the second wine Les Griffons, but that is as you would expect at this stage, and in fact underlines the excellent construction and potential of the first wine. It is fairly reserved, yet the layers of black fruits and tannins are all in place. 80% new oak. Drinking Window 2025 - 2040.Decanter | 95 DECBlackberries, sweet tobacco, incense and currants. Aromatic. Medium to full body and firm, sleek tannins. Racy and refined. Shows lovely balance and finesse. Pretty now, but needs another three or four years of bottle age. Try from 2023. Reviewed in Hong Kong Chinese Wine Tasting July 2020.James Suckling | 95 JSA juicy, well-knit style, with energetic plum and black currant compote notes that are studded with anise and black tea accents. Has a muscular edge through the finish, with brambly grip holding sway for now. There’s more than enough fruit to put this away for a bit. Best from 2022 through 2035. 14,833 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WS