Critic Ratings & Tasting Notes
Jeff Leve – The Wine Cellar Insider (94-96/100)
“Bouquets of flowers, Cuban cigars, blackberries, black cherries, plums, smoke, cassis, and truffle aromatics capture your attention. On the palate, the wine is elegant, silky, vibrant, and graceful. The fruits provide purity, length, and freshness. The layers of licorice-infused cherries, plums, walnuts, chocolate, and black plums on the medium-bodied palate are supple, silky, and as generous as the vintage allows, finishing with more of those sweet, juicy, vivacious plums. The wine promises sublime pleasure with just a few years of age and will evolve for 2-3 decades. The wine blends 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Franc. 12.7% ABV. 3.7 pH. The harvest took place September 23 – October 9. Yields were a paltry 20 hectoliters per hectare. Only 50% of the harvest went into the Grand Vin. Drink from 2028-2047.”
Decanter (96/100)
“This wine offers pure, sophisticated aromatics of blueberries, blackcurrants, peony, and iris, with crayon and inky notes. Smooth and silky, it delivers great energy and intensity, balancing delicate chew, fleshiness, and fine, muscular tannins. Structured yet tight, it reveals iodine, salty graphite, cool blue fruit, mint, and cola. The texture grows on the second taste, gaining mass and flesh, with juicy sweetness on the mid-palate, evolving into a chewy finish. Tobacco, clove, liquorice, dark chocolate, and cedar add complexity. Mouthwatering acidity and precise balance showcase Nicolas Glumineau’s skill, creating a svelte, energetic wine with a lot going on. 16% press. 50% production. 65% new oak. 3.7 pH.”
James Suckling (95-96/100)
“The length and linear nature of this wine make it outstanding. Medium-bodied with polished and refined tannins that caress the palate. Extremely well done. The length and finesse are impressive.”
Vinous (94-96/100)
“The 2024 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is plush, sensual and inviting. Succulent dark-toned fruit, sweet spice, new leather, mocha, chocolate and lavender build nicely. Here, too, the tannins are so polished, so refined. The 2024 is an especially elegant Pichon-Comtesse. It’s also very clearly one of the wines of the vintage. Bravo. Tasted four times.”
An Exceptional Pauillac Wine With Power and Refinement
The Estate
Created in 1850 following the division of the Pichon-Longueville estate, the Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande flourishes on the Pauillac terroir. Classified as a Second Growth in 1855, it is today owned by the Rouzaud family, owners of the Champagne house Louis Roederer. The estate draws its uniqueness from its remarkable feminine heritage, embodied by figures such as Virginie de Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, and May-Eliane de Lencquesaing. Its château, inspired by the hôtel de Lalande in Bordeaux, and its refined style bear witness to this unique historical feminine imprint in the Médoc.
The Vineyard
The vineyard covers 114 hectares, of which 92 hectares are in production, planted on the characteristic gravel soils of Pauillac resting on clay-sand subsoils. The vines average 28 years of age. The estate is committed to an environmental approach with 85% of the vineyard under organic conversion and the application of biodynamic preparations.
The Vintage
The year 2024 was marked by record rainfall during winter and spring, accompanied by cool temperatures that slowed the vegetative cycle. Flowering took place from early June until veraison in mid-August, a period marked by coulure and millerandage phenomena and unprecedented downy mildew pressure. Fortunately, ripening occurred under dry and sunny conditions from mid-July to the end of August, allowing the harvest to take place from September 23 to October 8 in favourable conditions.
Winemaking and Aging
Parcelled vinification in gravity-fed tronconical vats. Aging takes place over 18 months in barrels, 65% of which are new oak with medium-long toast. The wines benefit from traditional racking using the à l’esquive method and egg white fining according to ancestral techniques.
Blend
83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc.
