Christopher Losa

Owner/Wine Director Bar Bambino

8.9

Central Coast ripeness well balanced with freshness, acidity, and a light hand in the winery. — 8 years ago

Bryce Wiatrak

9.4

Herbal and still rather tannic and youthful. Leather, mushroom, tobacco, thyme, rosemary, dusted plum. Some redder tones emerge from the black fruit core - strawberry even. A pleasant rusty patina with some gentle, welcome bitterness on the finish. — 8 years ago

Conrad Green

9.7

Looks almost rose. Quite dark. Tiny bubbles, very gentle. Glorious nose of resolved pinkish fruit. On the palate a beautiful strawberry soft and precise mid palate with delicate acidity. Long and phenomenal. — 9 years ago

with Paul and Matt

Brash Higgins

9.1

Nice vitality here, touch of zingy acid, musky fruit, lithe and delicate. Green smells...12.6% — 10 years ago

Jason Somerville

9.0

Plump and juicy, easy to drink. Excellent value for the money. — 10 years ago

Nick Davis

9.6

Delicate, finessed, lean. A feminine expression of a beautiful vintage, handled with gentle care. A real treat, to enjoy this rarity! — 10 years ago

A. K.

9.5

A soft, gentle, elegant wine. Tannins arch palette forward, with a bit of a long tail, but are never bitting. Slight earthy mushroom funk and cassis. This isn't a wine for a heavy meal or a blizzard - light fall air is where she shines. — 10 years ago

Michael Petrozzella

9.5

Crisp and refreshing... Fantastic! — 11 years ago

Matt Beyard

9.2

Delicious Pinot. Not your normal Cali Pinot - like I’ve had in France. Kenny does such a great job with his Pinots. I just love them. — 8 years ago

Francesco Scarrone

9.0

Extremely interesting and juicy — 8 years ago

Ron Yates

9.4

This might be the best Tempranillo I have ever tasted. Soft and gentle with no overbearing oak for a Gran Reserva. Soft tannins and beautiful fruit notes. So good we had two bottles. — 9 years ago

Jason Somerville

8.9

Very pleasant. Refreshing, crisp, juicy. Excellent value for the price point. — 9 years ago

Graham Jenkins

8.9

This is not bad at all — 10 years ago

with Jasmine

Ellen Bucher

9.4

perf Spring wine — 10 years ago

George Chen

9.2

Perfect harmony...seamless poetry of soft gentle dried flowers and warm earth. Need to find more as it was a deal years back! — 10 years ago

Kai Li

9.0

Bold but gentle tannin, easy to drink. Cherry and a little cigar aroma. — 11 years ago

Brandon Woo

9.6

Oak heavy-ish nose but not over oak ish. Oaky heavy ish tongue but not overly oak ish. Gentle tongue and medium finish. — 13 years ago

Sandra Larson

9.1

Great sweet white wine with gentle bubbly. Good sipping wine with dessert or to offset spicy foods. — 8 years ago

April Sutton

9.0

Tastes like a bourbon Christmas — 8 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.4

Pichon Lalande is my favorite 2nd growth with a steak. Yup...it's #SteakandClaret night to quote my buddy Gary Westby. Further, it's certainly one of my favorite producers period. I've waited for this wine to be in the bottle for 10 years before finding out definitely how good it was or wasn't. You see, the 05 Bordeaux vintage was exceptional. It's drinking right now better than 00. 00 may turn out to be better, but not for some time. The real issue was the division of scores between RP & NM. Parker had this as low as an 86 and now has it at 89. Neil Martin has been consistently at 95-96. I found it simply inexplicable that Pichon Lalande could have bombed in such a great vintage. Tonight, I know they didn't. This wine is beautiful. Although, I don't believe it will cellar as long as their some of their very best vintages and many others I've enjoyed. On the nose, bramble, ripe blackberries, dark cherries, notes of blueberries, poached strawberries, graphite, baking spices, cedar, lightly perfumed violets and dark, fresh & dry red flowers. The body is medium-medium plus, tannins nicely resolved with 10 years to be completely resolved. Fruits of; ripe blackberries, dark cherries, notes of blueberries, poached strawberries and pomegranate with a whiff of spice. There's notes of dry bramble, soft leather, fresh violets, graphite, cedar, dry stones, dark rich earth, limestone, tobacco, spice-box, vanilla, very light cinnamon & nutmeg. The finish is very long, elegant, ripe, round, smooth, good acidity and beautifully elegant...50-50 earth & fruit. I bought more bottles of this at $85 after it's was first released in futures and I do not regret it. $85 is proving to be a steal for this wine when it normally sells for between $100-$150 a bottle and higher. Might heavy up further after tonight if I find more around the same price. Oh yes...I'm with NM on the scoring. Photos of the Chateau, estate vines, newer tasting room & the Virginie de Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande. Forgive my long post, but my passion and love for this producer is profound. Producer history and notes...as I wrote in an earlier post for Pichon Baron, Pichon Baron and Lalande started as one entity. The first mention of what is now called Chateau Pichon Lalande was the creation of Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan. Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan is responsible for forming many of the top Bordeaux estates today. Pichon Lalande was given its name when Therse, the daughter of the founder received the estate as a dowry when she married Jacques de Pichon Longueville. Pichon Lalande was essentially managed by three women, Therese de Rauzan, Germaine de Lajus and Marie Branda de Terrefort. On the eve of his death in 1850, Baron Joseph de Pichon Longueville divided the property between his five children. His three daughters received Pichon Lalande and his sons Pichon Baron. What happened next was Virginie, the wife of the Count of Lalande took over the management of the estate under the name of Comtesse de Lalande. In 1850 she commissioned the popular, architect Duphot to build a residence inspired by the Hotel de Lalande, located in Bordeaux. Without heirs, Pichon Lalande passed down from aunts to nieces. Following World War I, the Miailhe brothers, bought Pichon Lalande in 1925. They were the ones who planted even more Merlot. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, the daughter of Edouard Miailhe became the new owner and general manager of Chateau Pichon Lalande in 1978. She expand the size of Chateau Pichon Lalande from 40 hectares to it's current 89 hectares. Chateau Pichon Lalande remained in the same family for more than 250 years! In fact, over three centuries, only two families have owned Pichon Lalande. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing sold Pichon Lalande to the owners of Roederer Champagnein in January 2007. This family-run company is managed by Frederic Rouzaud who owned several other wine estates in Bordeaux; Chateau Bernadotte, Chateau de Pez, Haut Beausejour and Chateau Reaut la Graviere. He sold Chateau Bernadotte in December 2012. In February, 2011, Sylvie Cazes was named the director of Chateau Pichon Lalande. She replaced Gildas d’Ollone. Sylvie Cazes was replaced in 2012 by current Director Nicolas Glumineau, who was previously at Chateau Montrose. In 2012, Pichon Lalande renovated the estate with a budget estimated at over 15 Million Euros. The new facilities included; building of a new underground barrel aging cellar and several new buildings...one that houses their new tasting room as shown. This renovation provided numerous improvements in their wine making. Most importantly, in the vinification. They created a new, triple tiered, cellar where everything moves by gravity. They also added numerous new, stainless steel, temperature controlled, double skinned vats. These new vats allow Pichon Lalande to vinify on a parcel by parcel basis as well as get much softer & gentle extractions. The 89 hectare vineyard of Chateau Pichon Lalande is located adjacent to Chateau Latour and and across the road from Pichon Baron. The terroir of Chateau Pichon Lalande is deep gravel with clay and limestone soil and is planted to; 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. — 8 years ago