TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

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DavidG
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TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by DavidG »

  • 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (9/29/2017)
    Cellared since release, perfect cork and fill. Dark red, minimal lightening at rim. Opens over an hour to show a deep rich nose of cassis and black cherry, tobacco, hints of smoke/tar and a whiff of green. Medium body, great balance with structure built on both acid and tannin, flavors follow the nose, medium/long finish. Many years to go. Excellent.
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Blanquito
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by Blanquito »

Sounds terrific, David. So, no sign of the torrid vintage?
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Claret
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by Claret »

This is a top 03 IMO.
Glenn
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DavidG
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by DavidG »

No raisiny over-ripe or confected notes. Just a really nice '03.
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JimS
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by JimS »

I am drinking this wine right now as I type, and you describe it well in your original note, David. This is a damn good wine, especially for an 03. I don't think there's any reason to not open one now if you have any - in a great place right now.
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marcs
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by marcs »

I have never found 03 to be "raisiny, overripe, or confected", I think this is a myth where people know it was extremely hot and then assume cliche characteristics of overripeness. I think a really super-hot year like 03 has entirely different effects than just longer hang time in sunny weather.

The negative characteristics I've seen in 03 wines have had to do with raspy/unpleasant tannins and just general clumsiness rather than some kind of Amarone-type effect.
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dstgolf
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by dstgolf »

Marcs,

I agree with you entirely about the 03 vintage. People hung on to the concept of over ripe,low acid,over oaked wines that some Chateaux got involved with manipulating acid level adding tartaric acid, altering new oak % etc. To date I`ve gone through more than 2 dozen estates and across the board I have not been disappointed other than I probably drank this vintage too early because of everyones fear about these falling apart and dying prematurely which hasn`t been the case.

David,

The PLL is bang on and another probable popped prematurely bottle but still pleasant now. Thanks for the review.
Danny
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JimHow
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by JimHow »

I totally agree on the 2003s.
Those generalizations are total myth.
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AKR
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by AKR »

marcs wrote:I have never found 03 to be "raisiny, overripe, or confected", I think this is a myth where people know it was extremely hot and then assume cliche characteristics of overripeness. I think a really super-hot year like 03 has entirely different effects than just longer hang time in sunny weather.

The negative characteristics I've seen in 03 wines have had to do with raspy/unpleasant tannins and just general clumsiness rather than some kind of Amarone-type effect.
I think the right banks suffered, and I gamely chewed my way through plenty of them when they were young. Maybe Pavie was the freak exception.

The other region that really underwhelmed, unf, was the Southern Rhone. They just kept getting worse with time. I finally finished the last of those a few years ago, and those were an expensive mistake, from release.

My favorite 03's have been from St Estephe, and the Northern Rhone. The latter are some of the rare items I'll still backfill (which I generally avoid).
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Comte Flaneur
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by Comte Flaneur »

No doubt it is a controversial vintage. This from Jancis Robinson in 2010 who was skeptical about the vintage, but she make some interesting points:

“It is probably not surprising that a growing season never seen before or since would engender strong feelings. In Bordeaux, as elsewhere in France, the grapes were picked earlier than ever before, since 1893 anyway. The levels of sugar, and therefore resulting alcohol, reached record levels, but the grapes did not go through the normal ripening process. Many of them literally shrivelled on the vine rather than building up nuanced flavours, so that what was picked was more like a raisin than a grape. Such dessication tended to produce dried fruit flavours and the resulting wines too often lacked freshness and juiciness. The tannin levels were relatively high, so that in the exceptional cases where there really is some interesting fruit to preserve, 2003 may prove exceptionally good, but to judge from a major assessment of 2003 red bordeaux at the beginning of this month, few wines seem to have a glorious future.

Full article:

https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles ... x-drink-up

I have tasted some pretty unbalanced 03s...wines that taste ok on glass one but the deficiencies, including lack of freshness, become apparent in glass two. GPL is a good example. Tasted cooked. OTOH Lagrange tasted so much better in June that it did ten years ago. But it looked and tasted like a 30 year old wine.

With the exceptions of Montrose and Cos, in verticals I have attended in London, 2003 is the vintage I had least love for...and I mean ex-post after drinking them. Most recently Pichon Baron, though I do remember the bottle over dinner at the Chateau in 2015 was pleasant. Lillian Barton went out of her way to disparage her 2003. However as this Farr Vintners tasting four years ago demonstrates, the first growths generally produced very hedonistic, albeit atypically forward, wines. Note the note on Lafite...

https://farrvintners.com/blog.php?blog=168
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DavidG
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by DavidG »

At the time, the dire predictions of excessive heat and "scorched" wines scared me off of 2003s. Jancis' take was more nuanced and turned out to be more accurate, but it wasn’t encouraging either. I purchased very little. Pichon Lalande since it is a perennial favorite, and Cos and Pavie because they were controversial. But only a few bottles of each. And a case of Pontet Canet, prodded by Jim's enablement.

Compared to Ian or just about anyone else, I have almost no experience tasting the 2003s. This was my first PL and as my note shows it had neither raisiny torrefaction nor excessive tannin. A very nice wine.

I have yet to try the Cos or Pavie. I was hoping GBF would add a few details beyond "didn’t confirm the hype" in his Cos thread.

The only 2003 I’ve had multiple times is the Pontet Canet. A couple of excellent bottles on release, then it went dumb for a while. When last drunk in 2015 it had come out of its shell but lacked ant tertiary development. It never showed signs of excessive ripeness or tannin. But the remaining bottles will sleep in hopes of developing some real aged complexity.
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dstgolf
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by dstgolf »

Ian,

Thanks for the 2003 attachments. The review on Farr Vinters by Stephen Browett brought mind the problem and complaint of horizontal tastings. Yes first growths and the right banks peers is always nice to read but one must be careful to read between the lines. Personally Cheval Blanc on its own can be fabulous but put it up against the predominantly Cab based right bankers and Petrus then I'd say 9+ Xs out of 10 it will fall short. It's crafted to be light on its feet,lighter in the glass for sure and certainly I don't expect those big bold cab cassis notes one anticipates from the first growths but this is 56% cab franc and 44% merlot so I wouldn't expect it to taste like a cheap merlot either as he describes with this being CF dominant and a very ripe cab franc year to boot. I'd expect this to shine but not having tasted it I can only raise my concerns about the reliability/credility of his comments on this wine. Tough competition its up against and valid point that all of these are in the same ballpark price range so they should lend themselves to be ranked but I find Cheval on its own delicious and elegant in most years but can't compete with the power of some of the other company it was keeping in this tasting side by side.

Reminds me a little of that curve ball that you through in London serving up that 2001 Margaux blind. You usually look for typicity in a chateau and I usually have Margaux as an elegant feminine wine but this showed so much power with deep cassis and its inky black colour had us all over the map thinking anything but Margaux. I was drawing towards a Margaux region wine based on its nose not the palate and that's why I was thinking a Margaux neighbor like La Lagune or one of the other Margaux commune wines. We were all fooled.
Danny
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DavidG
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by DavidG »

Danny, to truly appreciate Cheval Blanc you must drink it out of a styrofoam cup and pair it with a fast food burger.
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dstgolf
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Re: TN: 2003 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

Post by dstgolf »

David,

I guess that`s what was missing at the tasting....a good In and Out burger!!
Danny
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