2020 Pichon Baron
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Tasting notes
This is a fantastic deep purple colour. The nose is potent and complex with sweet cotton candy mingling with darker toasted spice, wood-smoke and earthy notes. The palate is beautifully balanced, rich and full-bodied with succulent cassis fruit. There is a lovely precision to the very fine, close-knit tannins – their textural finesse makes the impressive structural depth almost go unnoticed. The wine reveals itself more fully on the very long finish, with wonderful freshness and some lovely graphite mineral notes.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Tasted blind. Black core with purple rim. Rather charry and oaky on the nose, almost hiding seductively pure damson fruit. Deep-fruited, firmly tannic and serious rather than inviting on the palate. Savoury dark power. Very marked by the oak. (JH)
The 2020 Pichon Baron has a delineated, slightly conservative but brilliantly focused bouquet that opens gloriously with time in the glass: black cherries, blueberry and cassis tinged with graphite. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent and juicy tannins that disguise the structure underneath. There's a real peacock's tail on this Pauillac, and it's a long-term prospect. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
The brilliant 2020 Pichon-Longueville Baron offers up inviting aromas of sweet berries and cassis mingled with pipe tobacco, loamy soil, pencil shavings and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, its velvety attack segues into a concentrated mid-palate that's framed by rich, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, vibrant finish. A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, it's a true classic that's a touch less demonstrative out of the gates than the sensual 2019, but which in the fullness of time will prove every bit as good.
About the producer
Pauillac’s Ch. Pichon Baron, formerly known as Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, is ranked as one of the 15 Second Growths from the 1855 Classification and is considered one of the "Super Seconds".