Château Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, Bordeaux, France, 1982

Vault Wine: This wine is stored in our vault.

Overview of the Wine
The Pichon Longueville estate goes back to 1688-1689. In 1850, Virginie de Pichon Longueville, Countess de Lalande, and her two sisters inherited three-fifths of the vineyard from their father. This took on the name of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. In 1978, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, daughter of Edouard Miailhe, in turn inherited this beautiful property and devoted herself entirely to continuing the tradition of quality wine.

Just two families have been responsible for maintaining this wine's superb reputation for three centuries. Bordering on Chateau Latour, Second Growth Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is located in the southern part of Pauillac, near Saint-Julien. The unusual choice of grape varieties (there is a much higher percentage of Merlot than average) is a partial explanation for this wine's outstanding personality, marked by elegance, balance and finesse. Traditional methods and modern technology combine to make the most of the estate's prestigious soil. The international reputation of this "Super Second" Growth can be attributed to unfailing quality and dynamic owners.

Winemaker
Jean-Jacques Godin

Grape / Blend
Bordeaux Red Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot

Origin
Pauillac, Bordeaux, France

Tasting Notes
The 1982 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is an outstanding wine from the Bordeaux region, particularly the Pauillac appellation. This vintage is generally considered one of the best vintages of the winery and is known for its exceptional quality and longevity. Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, often referred to simply as Pichon Lalande, is a Deuxième Cru Classé (Second Plant) in the Bordeaux classification of 1855 and has earned an excellent reputation through its elegant and complex wine production.

In the glass, the 1982 Pichon Lalande shows itself in a deep, dense ruby red color, which can pass over time into a garnet red. The nose is intense and complex, with aromas of ripe blackcurrants, cherries and plums, complemented by notes of tobacco, cedar wood, leather and spices such as vanilla and pepper. With increasing maturity, additional nuances of truffles, earth and a fine balsamic touch develop, giving the wine an extraordinary depth and complexity.

On the palate, the 1982 Pichon Lalande presents itself fully, structured and elegant, with well-integrated, ripe tannins and a harmonious acidity that ensures freshness and balance. The fruit flavours are concentrated and rich, with the ripe berries and plums combining with the complex aromas of tobacco, leather and spices. The texture is smooth and luxurious, and the finish is long and persistent, with a fine mineral touch and an elegant interplay of fruit and spices.

The 1982 vintage has developed excellently over the years and is located in an ideal drinking window, but can also mature for a few more years to continue to gain complexity. This wine shows the impressive ripening potential and high quality that distinguish Pichon Lalande.

100 Points - Decanter
This delivers on all fronts; a sharp, edgy, enveloping and forceful wine with so much life and lift. The nose smells of baked cherry pies with vanilla, exotic spices, cola, mint, blackcurrants and strawberries. Racy, showy and shiny with floral accents of potpourri as well as tobacco, cigar box and caramel. Smooth and supple, extremely well framed on the palate with bite and grip to the plush but also mineral-laced tannins. This is still shining brilliantly at more than 40 years old: confident and truly memorable. Lots of life to go for this beauty. Winemaker Jean-Jacques Godin. (GH)

100 Points - Jane Anson
A great example of a word-of-mouth hit, the 1982 Pichon Comtesse has built its reputation by delivering time and time again, giving the First Growths a run for their money with its cigar box and pencil lead Pauillac signature and the caressing ripe fruits of a great quality vintage. I have tasted this every two years for the past six years, and each time I have expected it to be past its peak, and each time it has proved me wrong. You get plenty of tertiary flavours, certainly, with truffles and rose petals, together with exotic dried spices of turmeric and cumin and barely-there tannins. Got to be the best value of the wines tasted in this 1982 horizontal, even though it has risen in price over the past 5 years. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing owner at the time, having stepped up to take over her family estate in 1978. Yield 40hl/h, harvest 16-30 September.

100 Points - Jeb Dunnuck
I've been lucky enough to have had the 1982 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse De Lalande a half dozen times over the past few years and it continues to show magically. Tasted out of a magnum, it has a still lively plum/ruby hue as well as gorgeous Pauillac notes of blackcurrants, smoked earth, cedarwood, pencil lead, and forest floor. It's unquestionably fully mature and in that sweet spot where it has incredible aromatics, beautiful, sweet fruit, no hard edges, and a gorgeous finish. I don't see it falling off a cliff any time soon, yet there's no need to delay gratification either. This is a magical, heavenly Bordeaux I wish every reader could taste. (JD)

100 Points - John Gilman
Blame it on the excess of youthful excitement, but my original purchase of 1982 Pichon-Lalande has now been gone from my cellar for many years, and I would love to have those bottles back today, as this vintage has just gotten better and better with the passing of time and is clearly the greatest Pichon-Lalande after the 1961 that I have ever tasted! It had been four years between bottles and this recent showing at our vertical was sheer perfection and clearly the finest showing of the 1982 that I have seen yet, as the wine offers up stunning depth and aromatic purity, tied to a lovely veneer of exoticism that even the superb 1989 cannot keep pace with at this time! The bouquet soars from the glass in a celestial blend of plums, sweet black cherries, mocha, a lovely touch of musky violet, cigar smoke, summer truffles, gorgeous soil tones, almost a hint of smoked meats, menthol and toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is very pure and precise, full-bodied and sappy at the core, with stunning complexity and grip, melting tannins and a very, very long, very pure and utterly profound finish. I have always loved this vintage of Pichon-Lalande, but it seems that it has finally reached its true apogee of peak drinkability in the last couple of years and I have clearly underrated this wine in the past! (JG)

100 Points - Wine Advocate
Several years ago, I purchased a case of the 1982 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande from a frigid Alsatian cellar where it had lain undisturbed since release, and from these bottles, it continues to very much merit a three-digit score. One of the most flamboyant, sensual wines of the vintage, it offers up a sweet bouquet of blackcurrants and blackberries mingled with notions of orange rind, violets, licorice and pipe tobacco. Full-bodied, supple and enveloping, with melting tannins, ripe acids and a long, cedar-inflected finish, it continues to deliver magical drinking. Having drunk the 1982 six or seven times this year, however, I am forced to concede that bottles that show this level of vibrancy and flare aren't so easy to find, so now is a great time to start pulling corks in earnest. This may not prove to be the very longest-lived wine of the vintage, but its star certainly did burn bright!

100 Points - Vinous
Another dazzling wine, the 1982 Pichon Lalande is utterly profound from the very first taste. In the glass, the 1982 is powerful and explosive, with seemingly endless layers of flavor that continue to unfurl over time. Vivid, intensely aromatic and seamless, the 1982 has enough pedigree and depth to drink well for at least several decades. What a wine! (AG)

98 Points - Wine Spectator
This unfurls with amazing grace, as refined tannins let the warmed cassis, macerated plum, pain d'épices, melted licorice, roasted alder and smoldering tobacco notes drape together and hang endlessly on the finish. A stunner that has been stuck at at this sublime point for a while, with no signs of moving any time soon. Thoroughly sublime and still the modern-era high-water mark for these wines. (JM)

Product size: 750ml