Pichon Comtesse (Pauillac)

Complete name is : "Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Grand Cru Classé de Pauillac" . It is owned and managed by successive generations of women since 1850... The owner at the present day is Mme May Eliane de Lencquesaing . She inherited the estate in 1978 . She also presides the prestigious " Academie du Vin de Bordeaux" since 2005 .
Like other estates in Bordeaux, the vineyards and property is inter-mingled with another property . For this one, Pichon Longueville Baron . Pichon comtesse vineyards are on the other side of the D2 road, with only a small surface on this side, recently purchased from Chateau Latour .
Kerstin , originally from Germany, works for the estate and is our guide today . In fact , I did'nt notice any accent, and would not have guessed she was foreign born if she had not told us ... We enter a chai with stainless vats, 11 of them in this room , sleek and clean . Vathouse built in 1985-1988 . Red tiles on the floor . The winery filled 2600 casks in 2004, for the two wines . 85 hectare vineyard surface . 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot . Manual harvest . Yields : 52-54 hectoliter/hectare . Grapes are brought at the chai free of leaves, debris or mould . Crusher . De-stemmer . Grapes are pumped through pipes to the vats, 33 vats altogether . Natural extraction with pumping over . Temp control . Indigenous yeasts in principle, but some years may ask for external ones . One of the particularities of the estate is the high proportion of Merlot (35%) . The feminine roundness of Merlot and the fact that women rule this estate since 1850 may explain this high percentage . Soil is sand and gravel . Roots go down 7-8 meter deep . Makes concentrated grapes here, in the juice as well as in the colour . The wine spends 3 months in vats . Only one press juice, kept separate till bottling . Malolactic fermentation in vats . 1st assemblage : end of december, before the cask stage . The Grand Cru Classé will stay in casks 18 months, and the second wine 12 months . 2nd assemblage at the end of the maturing stage . This blending will be done in vats, where the wine will be cooled shortly before bottling , because in the casks, the wine temperature is about 16, 17 or 18°C . Will be cooled down to 14°C . Mrs de Lencquesaing makes the assemblages so that the millesime is well translated in the wine . A (female) oenologist is present year around with the chai master . 60-65 people work in the estate, plus 150 hired for harvest ( many of them coming from Spain ) . Harvest lasts 3 weeks maximum . We walk through a room with 8 old cement vats, most with 190 hectoliter capacity . They are used only occasionally . 1st cask cellar : The second wine is here : The "Reserve de la Comtesse" . Half underground chai, built in 1957 . Egg-white fining is done 2 months before bottling . As we visit the cellar, workers are busy racking several casks . You don't see that every day when you visit a winery. One of them holds the cask while the other repeatedly fills a glass with a candle held near the glass, to spot when lees begin to flow . Looking at the scene in the dim light of the cellar is something . Like looking at something both past and present .

The casks : French oak, from 6 cooperages, including Nadalie, Demptos, Seguin-Moreau . The second wine of the estate, she says, has a lower laying down potential , but still has a comfortable estimated life span of at least 10-15 years .

Overview on the second cask cellar ( with a sculpture in the foreground ) : The Grand Cru Classé wine is here . Dug in 1987-1988 . Same architect than the one who built the underground chai at Chateau Margaux . Natural cool temperature . Beautifully lit, with work of arts displayed .
We then stay a few minutes in an exposition room with hundreds of unique pieces : This is a real museum, made with the personnal collection of the owner, with
wine glasses, wine flacons and bottles from all over the world and across History : Asia, the middle east, the roman empire [ see the picture on left , of a glass from the roman empire ] , 18th century France and England , central europe... The display shelves with the 18th century pieces from England , in particular , shed light on the british refinement and passion for wine . There's also a collection of corkscrews . I regret we did not spend more time to appreciate and imagine what these glasses and containers with so different shapes and style saw and witnessed .
Then , we enter the tasting/reception room . The feminine and artistic imprint is visible here throughout the estate, with art works displayed in the chai and cellar . The reception room has even more art , well lit by the windows and glass-doors overlooking the lawn, the vineyards, and the Gironde river, beyond . The vineyards we see through the windows, by the way, are Chateau Latour's . On the walls, framed "critics choice" medals from the Wine Spectator , 5 of them, 93, 95, 97, 99 and 2001 . Also ten "Decanter Awards" .
Let's not be intimidated ! And let's taste :Wood cases of wine being forklifted onto a truck.__1 Chateau Bernadotte, Cru Bourgeois Haut Medoc 1999 . 30 hectare estate . Ripe fruits nose . 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot . 1/3 new casks and 1/3 2 wines old casks . Pleasant wine . Price 12 to 14 Euro . Here they sell directly for visiting customers, but no delivery .
__2 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1998 . Different proportions for this one year older wine : 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc . Ample nose . Fruits . Atypical Pauillac, but Pauillac nonetheless .
Pichon Longueville wines are exported in the major wine markets .