Freddy R. Troya

9.4

Château Pichon Baron 2023 – Pauillac, Grand Cru Classé en 1855. BDX France 🇫🇷

Overview
A commanding and traditionally styled Pauillac delivering power, precision, and aristocratic structure, driven by a 66% Cabernet Sauvignon–dominant blend with 27% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Semillon support. Dark fruit density, mineral authority, and refined oak integration create a wine that feels impactful today while clearly engineered for long-term evolution and layered complexity.

Aromas & Flavors
Blackcurrant, cassis, blackberry, graphite, pencil shavings, cedar, cigar box, crushed gravel, subtle dark cocoa and savory spice.

Mouthfeel
Full-bodied with firm yet polished tannins, excellent mid-palate density, vibrant structural tension, tightly knit acidity, and a long, authoritative finish that builds rather than fades.

Food Pairings
Dry-aged ribeye, lamb rack, beef Wellington, venison, mushroom-forward dishes, aged hard cheeses.

Verdict
A textbook expression of elite Pauillac: powerful, elegant, disciplined, and deeply age-worthy. The wine delivers immediate presence while clearly signaling even greater complexity and harmony with time in bottle.

🍷 Personal Pick
This is serious wine, fierce yet controlled, deeply impressive without arrogance, and loaded with finesse under the horsepower. A bottle that earns respect with every sip and promises an extraordinary future in the cellar. — 9 months ago

Severn G

9.4

Confrérie Des Chevaliers du Tastevin Sous-Commanderie d'Albany; 11 September 2022 at Old Inn on the Green, New Marlborough, MA
~My inaugural hosting dinner~ — 4 years ago

Steven Beishuizen

9.1

Yellow delicious apple and white peach. Very honeyed as well. This is exactly how I like my morning granola. It's been twenty years since I've been to Hungary. This is a great reminder that I've got to get back. — 6 years ago

with Anita

Swii Yii Lim

9.2

Quite mentholated, with wild thyme, Sicilian oregano, and winter savoury over the earthy fruit. Coming out of the sulky teenager phase, but needs another 5 years to fully open up. Evolving well from what it was upon release. — 8 years ago

Mirelsa Modestti

9.3

Red fruit has never been as regal. The visual experience is bathed in red elegance. A hint of licorice in the nose, followed by an explosion of berries all over the place, and then the most beautiful silk as it fades into a long, subtle farewell. A beautiful surprise every time. — 9 years ago

Alessandro Cantarelli

9.6

the best wine made in my home valley. It uses the same process as Amarone but it is smoother and fresher without loosing complex structure and strong cherry and caramel — 10 years ago

Al Doyle

9.3

What a surprise. Apparently there were three of these just lying around in Missouri. Who knew? Obvs we ripped through them all. — 10 years ago

with Kenneth, Koko and 1 other

Mike Lee

9.4

A monster of a wine! This takes me back to all of the wonders of our last Paso trip. Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!!! — 11 years ago

Edmond Bordelon

9.4

Wow!
Yes a bit sweet, but amazing Hungarian late harvest. — 11 years ago

Lewis Chester

9.3

2000 vintage. Medium lemon hue. Very very fresh. Zingy and delightful. Some nutty development already showing. Depth of citrus fruits, hints of bergamot. Green peach. Medium minus body. Good lingering finish. A classy wine. Leave 5 years+ before opening. NB: after an hour and a half, the wine has added weight, more concentration and a developed nose of almond, hazelnut and stone fruits - sweet apricot and some caramel. Delightful and moreish. — 12 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.6

2002 vintage. Nice fill, good cork. Decanted with a respectable amount of powdery sed. Smelled great during decanting. Tasted 1.5 hours after opening/decanting. Expected light body with delicate tendrils. Medium body with a light palate footprint. Holy shazzbaat. This was absolutely firing. Like top of the pops, straight up to number one. Exceptional knitting and in a perfect spot now. Go all the way back to the inaugural 1982 vintage with this winery’s cabernet…thought my all-time fave was the 1991 altho the 1986 and 1987 were special. The 2020, picked early, thus avoiding the fires, is phenomenal as well. This was on another level and have had approx 150 bottles of Spottswoode Cab in the last three + decades. It was probably the best out of all of them. Difficult to imagine Napa Cab better than this. Power and finesse on display. Not improving but can hold this intensity for another 4-5 years. 12.24.24. — 2 years ago

Ken Venezio

9.8

Sometimes you're lucky enough to have great friends that share extraordinary wine. This is an amazing wine. A big wine with big bold flavors but it never left you feeling like it overpowered you. Structure balance and all the accolades. Could easily stand another 5-10 and not lose a thing. — 3 years ago

Alwyn Smith

9.0

Solidly good Bordeaux Cabernet forward blend. Great value. — 6 years ago

John Osgood

9.5

The perfect pizza wine. — 8 years ago

Vincy

9.5

A very complex wine with big muscular structure. Earthy smell at the beginning, Graphite, pencil shaving, tobacco leaves, coffee beans, very strong tannic but change to silky after hours. Decanted it for more than 5 hours it showed a different way. Really impressive for this Sunday night. — 9 years ago

Karen Dickson

8.9

I plowed through a spicy sausage stuffed green pepper with this as a companion. Floral notes and an exotic sandlewood flavor. Finish was thin, but I'm not complaining — 10 years ago

Peter Marks

Master of Wine, Educator Constellation Brands

9.6

Amazingly rich and silky seductive. Cedar, earth, black currant, bay leaf and dried cherry. At the peak of perfection but should easily hold another 5-10 years. — 10 years ago

with Adrienne

LM Segal

9.3

I don't understand Caymus-haters. Sure, the setting didn't hurt, but with a half-hr decant the nose was rich cassis, vanilla. Showing a little age, the dark red fruit, tobacco and oaky-rich tannins were smooth as silk. Ready but could go for 5-10 years. Not sure I could've picked this out from an '05 Special Selection I tried a few months back. — 10 years ago

Ryan Foss

9.2

More tannic, powerful, youthful, and funky than the '85,
But still great. Probably needs another 5-10. — 12 years ago

Lowell Minick

9.5

Wine and BBQ...perfect match — 13 years ago

Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.1

The 2013 Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos, aged for 20 months in oak barrels, has a perfumed, honeyed bouquet with mango and yellow plum. It doesn't quite have the complexity of the 2014. The palate is well balanced with a pure entry, a keen line of acidity, orange zest-tinged honeyed fruit and nougat and hazelnut notes on the finish. The palate has a tad more complexity than the aromatics, but overall, it is very fine, if not the long-term prospect of other vintages. (Neal Martin, Vinous, April 2024)
— 3 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.2

1975 vintage. From magnum. Decent fill and cork. Decanted and tasted after two hours. Medium body. Nose remained angular and sharp throughout but flavors vacillated between finesse and brutish. Not the star of the night, yet impressive nonetheless. Out of magnum, looks to have 5-10 more years left of quality in store. 3.5.24. — 3 years ago

Bob Stackman

9.0

Very tasty old vine Zin! Smooth and is it, “fruit-forward”, yes that is it. — 6 years ago

Peter A. Muth

8.9

I had a fruity to oak/earthy experience. Fruit up front Oak to Earth on the finish.
$10.+ at Costco.
Went well with my steak-filled salad...as well as with my chocolate-covered walnuts afterwards. — 6 years ago

Pietro Amirkhanian

9.2

Honey, saffron, thick and super yummy — 9 years ago

Chris England

9.1

1️⃣9️⃣8️⃣0️⃣

🗞 Rubic Cube, PacMan, Modem, 1Gb 29Kg
🎵 Another Brick in the Wall, Another One Bites the Dust
🎥 Empire Strikes Back, 9 to 5, Stir Crazy, Airplane
🗣 Who Shot JR, Here's Johnny!
🌍 4.39B

The fruit’s just hanging in there on this £144 Ducru

🍷 Ruby w/ brick edge

👃 Herby driven dusty musty cellar w/ cherry, blackcurrant, date & prune in a light charred smokey sooty oak

👄 Med body of faded black & red fruits w/ a cocoa & liquorice tone

🎯 Med mixed berry fruit tickle w/ liquorice & mocha — 9 years ago

Tanya Henderson

8.9

Fruity Bold Plum Flavor Not for Nancy — 10 years ago

Emily P

9.2

What's Hungarian for "sweet but not syrupy"? — 10 years ago

Oskar Brauer

9.2

The sweet, sour or acidity very balance — 11 years ago

Robert Love

9.5

95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot. Gorgeous nose of black currant, liquorice, and asphalt. Big and bold in the mouth, but not overripe, with integrated tannins, nice acidity, and a lingering finish of dark fruit and spice. Good now through 2025. — 12 years ago