Comtesse de Lalande - Château Pichon Longueville

Wine Spectator

94 / 100

byJames Sucklingthe8/31/2000

Concentrated. Medium-ruby color, with ripe plum, cigar tobacco and smoke aromas. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a long finish. Still closed, almost clumsy. Give it time.--1990 Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2005. 33,500 cases made.

Wine Advocate

79 / 100

byRobert Parkerthe2/28/1997

I have been consistently disappointed by my tastings of the 1990 Pichon-Lalande. Yet never have I rated it as low as I did in this blind tasting. The wine is unmistakably vegetal, austere, and lacking the seductive, sweet, ripe fruit this estate produces in top years. Something clearly went awry for Pichon-Lalande to miss so badly in an exceptional vintage. In this tasting, the wine tasted lean, diluted, intensely herbaceous, and lacking sweetness, depth, ripeness, and charm. Apologists who have badly overrated this wine will no doubt insist that its owners give it additional cellaring, but aging will only exaggerate this wine's lack of balance. Like its northern neighbor in Pauillac, Mouton-Rothschild, this wine is a major disappointment. As I have said before, the 1991 Pichon-Lalande, from a decidedly weak vintage, is a superior wine!

Wine Advocate

87 / 100

byRobert Parkerthe8/31/1993

The 1990 is not as well-endowed as the 1989. It displays medium dark ruby color and an attractive bouquet of vanillin from new oak, ripe blackcurrants, and spices. Although not as concentrated as usual, the wine does exhibit medium body, some glycerin, and fine ripeness, as well as an overall sense of grace. This stylish wine would have benefitted from more length and intensity. In the context of the vintage, it could have been better. Anticipated maturity: Now-2000. Last tasted, 6/93.

Wine Advocate

87-89 / 100

byRobert Parkerthe6/30/1992

Even though this is usually a delicately-styled Pauillac, the 1990 appears to be less well-endowed than some of the other recent top vintages of Pichon-Lalande, such as 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1989. It displays medium dark ruby color, an attractive bouquet of vanillin from new oak, ripe blackcurrants, and spices. It is not as concentrated as I would have hoped, but it does exhibit good body, glycerin, and ripeness, as well as an overall sense of beauty and grace. While stylish, it could have benefitted from more length and intensity. Anticipated maturity: 1995-2008.