1983 Pichon Comtesse
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Tasting notes
This wine has always been underrated. Shows wonderful aromas of chocolate, berry and earth. Full-bodied, with full, velvety tannins and a sweet berry finish. Drink now or hold.--Pichon-Lalande vertical. James Suckling, Wine Spectator 1997
Critic scores
Average Score
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
This wine seems to be just beginning to turn the corner and was excellent in its most recent tasting. For much of its life it has been a stunning wine, not far off the mark from the prodigious 1982. The color is still a healthy dark garnet with some amber creeping in at the edge. The wine shows a very distinctive nose of asphalt, tobacco, and cigar box, intermixed with some sweet cherries and black currants. In the mouth it is medium to full-bodied, but the fruit seems to be ever-so-slightly fading. In the finish, the tannins and acidity are beginning to poke through. Nevertheless, this is still underrated and always a sleeper vintage for Pichon-Lalande, but it requires consumption. Anticipated maturity: Now. Last tasted, 9/02. Jan 2003, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
Ch. Pichon Comtesse is one of the stars of Pauillac, and one of the original "Super Seconds" in Bordeaux. Classed as a Deuxième Cru Classé in the 1855 Bordeaux classification, it is widely recognised that Pichon Comtesse can not only match First Growths, but occasionally outperform them.