This is a super wine. It’s a new launch from Bordeaux superstar Pichon Baron. Christian Seely describes it thus: ‘It is a second wine, made from grapes from the intermediate parcels that might sometimes make it into the Grand Vin, sometimes into Tourelles [previously regarded as Pichon’s second wine]. Les Tourelles itself comes mostly from a specific terroir called St Anne.’ If I’d been tasting this blind, I wouldn’t have thought of it as a second wine at all.

Les Griffons de Pichon Baron 2012 Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
13% alcohol. Lovely focused sweet blackcurrant fruit nose with freshness and a subtle sappy, gravelly edge. Very pure and alluring but not in the slightest bit over-ripe. Pure, clean, refined palate with blackcurrant and black cherry fruit. Real focus and harmony. A brilliant expression of Pauillac that’s not trying too hard, and has lovely freshness and the sort of structure that makes you think this could be a good bet for mid- to long-term cellaring. I really like the freshness here. 94/100

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