Awesome, richly textured, powerful still with its ripe yet now-savoury red fruits on display, the sweetness edged out by truffles and spice. A great wine that remains full of life. One of the best Pauillacs in the vintage. 8% Petit Verdot finishes the blend (although in all likelihood this is the vineyard planting, not the specific blend that was being recorded). Harvesting began on October 1. Drinking Window 2018 - 2045.Decanter | 97 DECBold pepper, savory and roasted cedar notes lead the way, with a core of steeped plum, macerated black currant and bitter cherry fruit. Extra tobacco, alder and juniper accents stud the finish, which still has plenty of grip.—Non-blind Pichon Lalande vertical (July 2014). Drink now through 2030.Wine Spectator | 95 WS(Château Pichon-Lalande) We did not have the 1983 Pichon-Lalande in our vertical tasting, as the host discovered he only owned the wine in magnum, and given the number of wines that we had in our lineup, it seemed that opening a magnum would only result in the wasting of half of its contents as people tried to stay fresh for the older wines coming round the bend. So, this note dates back a few years to the last time I drank the 1983 Pichon-Lalande out of bottle. It is a truly lovely wine that is now fully mature and drinking beautifully. The deep, pure and complex nose wafts from the glass in a very stylish blend of cassis, fresh herb tones, mocha, cigar ash, gravelly soil nuances and a lovely base of toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and classically plush on the attack, with a fine core, lovely breed and complexity, tangy acids and just a bit of remaining tannin perking up the long and classy finish. This has always been one of my favorite vintages from this era at Pichon-Lalande and the wine is drinking at its apogee at age thirty, but still has decades and decades of life ahead of it. Fine juice from a great stretch at this superb Second Growth. (Drink between 2013-2040).John Gilman | 93 JGThe 1983 Pichon-Lalande shows much better here than a bottle I tasted a couple of years ago. This has an open, generous bouquet featuring mineral-infused black fruit laced with black truffle. The fresh, vibrant palate is very well balanced, offering graphite-tinged black fruit and a fine bead of acidity. This is no lightweight Pichon-Lalande; though not intense or powerful and conveying a sense of unpretentiousness, it shows more energy and focus than the 1982. I have found bottles a little up and down, including one corked bottle in September. But this is undeniably a fantastic showing, the best example I have encountered in more than 20 years of tasting this vintage. Tasted at Brat restaurant in London.Vinous Media | 93 VMThis wine seems to be just beginning to turn the corner and was excellent in its most recent tasting. For much of its life it has been a stunning wine, not far off the mark from the prodigious 1982. The color is still a healthy dark garnet with some amber creeping in at the edge. The wine shows a very distinctive nose of asphalt, tobacco, and cigar box, intermixed with some sweet cherries and black currants. In the mouth it is medium to full-bodied, but the fruit seems to be ever-so-slightly fading. In the finish, the tannins and acidity are beginning to poke through. Nevertheless, this is still underrated and always a sleeper vintage for Pichon-Lalande, but it requires consumption. Anticipated maturity: Now. Last tasted, 9/02.Robert Parker | 90 RP
