PICHON BARON 2019

Based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot raised in 80% new French oak, the 2019 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron is pure class and just a beautiful, seamless Pauillac that does everything right. Revealing a deep purple hue as well textbook notes of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, freshly sharpened pencils, and liquid violets, it shows the more medium to full-bodied, elegant style of the vintage yet is brilliantly concentrated, has a supple, layered mouthfeel, ripe yet building tannins, and a great, great finish. It's more open and expressive than Mouton and shares plenty of similarities with Comtesse with its layered, supple, just perfectly balanced and classy style. It unquestionably already offers pleasure today (and it's a good time to try a bottle, as I wouldn't be surprised to see it close down), but it will need a decade to hit maturity and it will be a 50-year wine.

Expressive and vibrant, with a cassis bush aroma that leaps to the forefront, followed quickly by sleek and dense black currant, black Mission fig and black cherry preserve flavors flanked by a racy graphite note. Shows a burst of sweet bay leaf and savory accents through the finish, as the fruit takes an encore before zooming off. A serious wine with a hint of bling. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. (JM)

The 2019 Pichon Baron was picked from September 18 to October 11. It has a captivating bouquet of intense blackberry, cedar, Japanese nori and sea spray notes on the nose, all exquisitely defined and poised. The harmonious palate is medium-bodied and classic in style, with pencil-lead-infused black fruit, lovely poise and not a single hair out of place toward the finish. Christian Seely believes this vintage suited Pichon-Baron, and that is confirmed by the quality in bottle. Outstanding.

Blackberries and blueberries with stone and graphite. Flint and black licorice, too. So perfumed. Full-bodied, very long and linear with incredible length. The new 1990, but better crafted. Chewy, yet so tailored and wonderfully proportioned. Freshness and elegance. Wonderful depth. 87% cabernet sauvignon rest merlot. The highest ever proportion of cabernet. Try after 2026.

The 2019 Pichon-Longueville Baron will go down as one of this château's great wines of the modern era, along with 2016, 2010 and 1989. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of cassis and plums mingled with notions of cigar wrapper, sweet loamy soil and violets, it's full-bodied, velvety and layered, with superb concentration, lively acids and rich, powdery tannins. Perfumed and resonant, this is a profound young Pauillac that bears more of a resemblance to its neighbor Château Latour than to Pichon Lalande this year. Pichon Baron was one of the great deals of the en primeur campaign, and readers who purchased futures are to be congratulated on their foresight.