1994 Château Pichon Longueville Comtésse de Lalande
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Tasting notes
The 1994 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is drinking beautifully, soaring from the glass with a classic bouquet of briary black fruits, cigar ash, fresh tobacco and loamy soil. Medium-bodied, supple and seamless, with melting tannins and a fleshy core of fruit, it's an immensely charming, notably over-performing vintage for this estate that's in its prime today.
Critic scores
Neal Martin
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 1994 Pichon-Lalande is a wine that I have tasted several times, but it has never really appealed to me. The bouquet lacks the fruit it displayed in its youth and is dominated instead by tobacco and mahogany bureau scents. The palate is uncouth and a little hollow – again, dictated by that tobacco tincture – and too foursquare and conservative on the finish. Not a bad showing for a 24-year-old Pauillac, but only an ordinary Pichon-Lalande. Tasted at home from my own ex-château bottle.
Excellent deep color. Pungent oak, talc, and black raspberry on the nose, with a suggestion of superripeness. Lush and sweet; not a blockbuster but quite suave. But compared to the even riper '95 this shows a faint green quality. Should give pleasure early.