Château Pichon Baron 2005

Critic scores

• Vinous93

The 2005 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 97/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Drought without any halt in ripening, together with cool nights, gave a legendary vintage: concentrated, with firm tannins and very long aging potential.

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.

Tasting

This vintage will delight many a palate! A few days after blending, we could already sense great harmony: grandiose merlots (the finest picked at the château) and cabernets of pure breeding and distinction. This is a wine of great aromatic freshness, with fine, delicate aromas. A great sensation of fullness on the palate, of great complexity? A great deal of power and richness. Everything comes together through concentrated, mellow tannins. The finish is very long, delectable and fleshy. Balance is the watchword: integrated oak, dense and shimmering tannins, length and density.

Blend of the 2005 vintage

Figures from the 2005 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 30 yrsVine age
• 180,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

In the vats, alcoholic fermentation begins: the conversion of the grape sugar into alcohol. Once alcoholic fermentation is complete, maceration continues its course in order to extract from the marc the tannins needed for a great wine.

Ageing

15 months in French oak barrels (80% new).

Terroir

Overlooking the Latour vineyard, the 73 ha of Domaine de Pichon Baron extend over gravelly soils of very high quality. This unique land, low in nutrients and without excess water, sparingly feeds old vine stocks whose grape production is deliberately small but of exceptional nobility. This terroir is capable of producing extraordinary wines, which the property sets out to do with excellence and consistency, respecting the original history of this vineyard. Composed of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, the extensive Pichon Baron vineyard has been divided up into meticulously defined plots. The great 40 ha terroir of the Pichon Baron knoll is devoted solely to the production of the Grand Vin and today accounts for the greater part of its blend.