1975 Pichon-Lalande, Pauillac

When I mentioned how the small handful of 1975s that I have tasted in the last several years have mostly been included in vertical tastings, the 1975 Château Pichon-Lalande was actually the wine I was thinking of, as flanked by other top vintages from the estate, it was a bit easy to overlook the 1975. However, as I last drank this wine at the aforementioned vertical back in 2019, it is also possible that the wine has continued to blossom over these past six years. In any case, or most recent bottle of the 1975 Pichon-Lalande showed beautifully on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in an excellent blend of cassis, dark berries, Cuban cigar wrapper, coffee bean, a complex base of gravelly soil tones, cedar and a topnote of tobacco leaf. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused, complex and shows lovely depth of fruit at the core, with fine balance and grip, a lovely base of soil tones, moderate tannins and a long, poised and quite elegant finish. This is one 1975 where the tannins really seem to have relaxed nicely in the time between my last bottle back in 2019 and this most recent example. This is now one of my favorite Left Bank wines from the vintage.

Savory, pepper, tobacco and juniper notes lead the way. The tannins remain slightly rigid, but the core of dried currant, cherry and plum fruit has enough substance to match. Old-school Bordeaux, aged gracefully. (JM)