Christian Fischer

9.2

That was one tough cork to remove. Took me 15 minutes and several tools, but managed. Of course I kept this bottle too long, this is beyond its peak. That said, still a lovely Bordeaux and I am curious how the air in the decanter will help. A great wine and fantastic it kept that long — 3 years ago

Luciano Silva

9.3

This wine was a gift from a friend and it is a nice surprise to me from Argentina. Known by the Malbec this Argentinian Cab blend (60% cab, 25% Malbec and 15% cab franc) has great notes of robusta coffee, tobacco and flower (hydrangea). In you chocolate and dark fruits. It’s higher alcohol level 14,5% ensures its long lasting flavour and a surprisingly round finish. — 5 years ago

Severn Goodwin

9.1

Christmas party No. 2 of the year so far, good start with my go to favorite. So smooth and floral! — 6 years ago

Peter Sultan

9.1

Nose: fresh fresh flowers, with cherries,; almost rose in color; light medium weight, strong strong minerality, slight effervescence really pops in mouth. Cut through yummy salmon, pork loin, & various vegetables. Downed at Rouge Tomate on 15% off bottle Thursday-score! — 7 years ago

Joe Selby

9.0

Found this at Costco, will purchase more if there is any left. Very drinkable with lots of fruit flavors. It was priced around $15, maybe less. — 7 years ago

Alvaro Bustillos

9.0

SD 11/18/16 — 7 years ago

A. R.

9.1

Clean, briny and peaty. Warm on the finish. Needed a little water to open up. — 8 years ago

Lindsay Brooks

9.2

Amber in color. Apples and cinnamon, brown sugar, fairly woody, with a fresh bread finish.

Darn good dram. If you got it as a gift, you are well liked! — 8 years ago

Jim Hines

9.3

Full bodied, held its own after 15 years! Very good. — 8 years ago

with Mary

Eric Hiatt

9.9

Last drops of a hoarded bottle. So much long, tangerine-laced mounds and almond joy. Goodbye. — 9 years ago

Jeremy Worthen

9.0

For $15 this is a steal, like it a lot. — 9 years ago

Nate Axline

9.0

Tasting great! All the pieces functioning in great harmony. fruit, acid, tannin all just right! — 4 years ago

Frank Chen

9.4

Still has 15+ years left...stunning integrated dark blue fruit full bodied old world earth clay driven ...the oldest wine I’ve tasted... — 5 years ago

Kyle Fortman

8.9

Excellent California cab. Bought at Kroger on sale for 15. Very smooth, light fruit, great tannins, nice heat. Would buy again. — 6 years ago

Michael Genn

9.4

Very young, but will be amazing in 10-15 years. Was really tight and closed but opened up very nicely after about 30 minutes in glass. Cassis, a little raspberry and tobacco — 7 years ago

Mark Flesher

9.3

This wine is a monster. When it opened, it had a lot of things to figure out, but did within 15 minutes. The wine was a lot of fig, some prune, a little mushroom both on the nose and on the palate with a very brief finish. This wine then vaulted to a dark mature red cherry wine on the front with good acidity, some oregano in the middle but a lot of dark fruit structure. The finish of this wine was increasingly tannic. Gave me some kind of sweetness in the middle to the finish. Kept on getting more youthful until about two hours when it just stayed the way it was. Nice wine. Has a crazy amount of life left. At least 10 years more. — 7 years ago

Federico

9.5

Veramente buono — 7 years ago

Michal Sulkowski

9.8

Drinking one down for the Cubs. — 8 years ago

Ian Burrows

Sommelier Atelier Crenn

9.2

Youngster. Expectations met. Only regret, one left, and we feel like it's an estimated 15+ years from maturity.... Eeeeek... — 8 years ago

Cathrine Todd

8.9

Tasted at 15 vintage vertical dinner : 2004 Cos d'Estournel had pretty, fragrant nose with floral notes and a linear body with slightly grippy tannins. — 8 years ago

Christy Ramos

9.4

Rare gem brought down from our local Napa friends. — 8 years ago

Tom Gutting

9.5

Absolutely superb. Youthful color. Lively. Complex. Great fruit. Structure remains. Will go 10-15 more years. — 9 years ago

Madelyn

9.1

2013. Surprising Pino. Let is sit for a bit and you will have a drinkable balanced wine. Will buy again. $15 at Kroger. — 9 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

8.9

The estate of Sette Ponti lies in the heart of the Chianti zone, 15 miles NW of the city of Arezzo past village of San Giustino Valdarno. A blend of 90% Sangiovese & 10% Merlot, aged in French Allier barriques. Deep Ruby with red fruit aromas and blossom spice. On the palate blackberry and cherry flavors, earthy spice and grainy tannins. Good balance lingering finish ending with some oak, earthy and mineral tones. — 4 years ago

Ravinder Kingra

9.5

Needs lots of time but would open up in 10-15 years. — 6 years ago

Adam Wills

10

Both me and the girl enter our 40th year in 2018, so we are celebrating a couple of days early with the oldest champagne we've ever had. Special is an understatement. Tastes like I'm butt naked, face down in a seafood tower on the top of the Empire State Building, waiting on a helicopter to come take us to Waffle House to sober up before we get in a Ferrari to see a 35mm print of E.T. Endless thanks to @Christian Moses for this bottle. Will remember it for a long time to come. ❤🥂 Happy New Years Friends — 6 years ago

with Christian

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. — 7 years ago

Punky Mahle

9.3

Delicious - even better day two and day three — 9 years ago

Max Rieger

9.6

Needs about 15 years at least — 9 years ago

with Shelley

Peter Marks

Master of Wine, Educator Constellation Brands

9.8

Unsweetened caramel, toasted walnuts and cashews. Wonderfully layered with complexity and tremendous length. — 10 years ago