Pichon Lalande 1995

In 1995, fifty percent of the crop was cut off the vine in a vendange verte (the culling of fruit in order to lower production and increase the concentration of the remaining grapes). That resulted in one of the top dozen wines of the 1995 vintage. This wine was terrific on each of the four occasions I tasted it during the last two weeks of March. The color is an opaque purple. The knock-out set of aromatics offers up smoky, sweet, black-cherry and cassis scents intermingled with hints of coffee and herbs. This ripe, full-bodied wine exhibits outstanding texture, layers of flavor, and a low acid, firmly delineated, moderately tannic finish. I would rate this awesome example of Pichon-Lalande higher than both the outstanding 1989 and the uninspiring, light-weight 1990. Although it will be hard to resist its charms, give it 3-4 years of cellaring after its release and drink it over the subsequent 20+ years. It is a knock-out 1995!
All of the wines in this segment were tasted between March 19 and March 28 in Bordeaux. Most of the important wines from both the 1994 and 1995 vintages were tasted three separate times during my ten-day stay in Bordeaux.

Crackling, dense wine with lots of fruit and lots of lift. Very full and bloody and ripe. Sumptuous. Well constructed but still very young. Chewy. Lovely wine. Drink 2009-2024. Date tasted 25th Oct 05.

What sumptuous pleasures await those who purchase the 1995 Pichon Lalande. The wine is smooth, immediately sexy an accessible. It is an exquisite example of Pichon Lalande with the Merlot component giving the wine a coffee/chocolate/cherry component to go along with the Cabernet Sauvignon's and Caberent Franc's complex blackberry/cassis fruit. The wine possesses an opaque black/ruby/purple color, and sexy, flamboyant aromatics of pain grille, blackfruits, and cedar. Exquisite on the palate, this full-bodied, layered, multidimesional wine should prove to be one of the vintage's most extraordinary success stories.