1996 Château Pichon Baron
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Tasting notes
Clearly more depth in colour than the preceding three years, and this is classic Pauillac, as with the 1995, but a little more structured. Cedar and cassis notes, still sombre and stubborn tannins, opens to show woodsmoke, cold ash, and touches of eucalyptus. 59IPT, 80% new oak.
Critic scores
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
The 1996 Pichon-Longueville Baron is beginning to drink beautifully. Unwinding in the decanter and glass with aromas of cassis, pencil shavings, black truffles, burning embers and loamy soil, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and seamless, with an attractive core of fruit that's framed by powdery tannins and succulent acids, concluding with a long, blood orange-inflected finish. While it can't match what this château achieved in 1989 and 1990, it's showing very well today.
Jean-Rene Matignon had been the winemaker for 10 years at this point and has made a brilliant wine that took its time to come around but is tasting delicious right now, exceptionally enjoyable and enticing. Supple tannins, plenty of grilled cedar and tobacco leaf, plump-textured cassis and blackberry brambled fruits, still fairly backward and young, just very much a classic Pauillac that has poise and lift. A dark horse, not seen as impressive as Comtesse in its youth, but now flexing its muscles. Drink 2023-2036.
About the producer
Pauillac’s Ch. Pichon Baron, formerly known as Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, is ranked as one of the 15 Second Growths from the 1855 Classification and is considered one of the "Super Seconds".