Château Pibran 2021

The 2021 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage character: Frost, mildew, then a cool summer brought back Bordeaux of old: taut, vibrant, elegant wines, with a more measured ageing span.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Blend of the 2021 vintage

Winemaking

Parcel selection was carefully managed in our wood and stainless-steel vat room, designed to adapt vinification to each plot. This year we gave even more priority to fruit quality by extending the cold pre-fermentation period before starting fermentation with our vintage indigenous yeast starter from the old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon plots of the Plateau. Maceration temperatures were between 24 and 29 °C. Extractions were preferably placed at the heart of fermentation and daily tastings refined the length of post-fermentation maceration, particularly important in refining the tannic structure. The Merlots were run off from 14 to 24 October and the Cabernets from 26 October to 2 November. Malolactic fermentations took place quickly in vat, allowing regular barrelling of separate lots. Barrelling was completed in mid-November.

Ageing

40% new barrels, 60% one-year-old barrels, for 18 months

Terroir

17 hectares

Garonne gravel rise (gravelly soils ensuring excellent drainage)