The Wines of Pauillac

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Continuing to drive south along the Medoc route from St. Estephe, one arrives at the world famous wine town of Pauillac. It is a destination of its own, containing no fewer than eighteen classified wines according to the 1855 Classification — including three of the five first growths: Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and Chateau Latour. Chateau Lafite Rothschild is just down the road from Chateau Cos d’Estournel in St. Estephe, but it could not be more different in style and taste. Classically made, it is an elegant wine, with fine flavor that goes down easily, as though it seeks to win by persuasion rather than by conquest. I sometimes note that wine writers are now talking about the “larger style” of Lafite, and I hope that the winemakers there have not succumbed to the temptation to adapt their famous wine for the taste of American reviewers. Something would be lost until the inevitable return to first quality occurred; if this were the case. Possibly this is just the natural tendency towards hyperbole of those who taste Lafite’s fruited elegance from the cask for the first time. I hope so. Lafite’s Pauillac neighbor (and sometime competitor) Chateau Mouton Rothschild could not be more different in style and taste. This is a big wine, full of flavor. The labels painted by artists over the years are also collected in their own right. Baron Philippe de Rothschild devoted much of his life to maintaining the high quality of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and it was his achievement that in 1973 the wine was elevated to first growth status. I saw him once, in a resplendent smoking jacket, at a formal dinner given by the American Ambassador in Paris. At the busy coat check station, Baron Rothschild got impatient waiting to be assisted after the dinner, and went into the coat check room to retrieve his own coat. Several other guests, not recognizing him, handed him their stubs, and with a smile he obligingly got their coats for them as well! Chateau Mouton Rothschild is also famous for its wine museum, a must on your trip to Pauillac. It contains rare and ancient works of art, sculpture and paintings and beautiful objets d’art, all concerning the subject of wine production and enjoyment through the ages. It is as worth seeing as the magnificent wine storage and aging cellars themselves. Traditionally the deepest of the first growths, Chateau Latour deservedly has a devoted following of its own. If I have any quibble with the style of Chateau Latour, it is that this wine tends to overwhelm other wines. I would therefore take care to serve it as the last wine at a dinner. Then, particularly served in magnums, its grand depth and flavor may be best appreciated. Well and appropriately served, it may well be the best of the best. The outstanding physical feature of the property, one that is shared by several riverside wine properties in neighboring St. Julien, is the presence of the large stones that are found throughout the holding. It has been found that these stones, probably washed down from the Pyreneean foothillls thousands of years ago, will store up the heat of a summer day, and radiate it back throughout the cooler evening. This geological feature explains something of the depth of the wines of this area.  I have heard people at wine tastings marvel at the taste of “Pauillac wines” and wonder just how to categorize them. The truth of the matter is that “Pauillac” is simply a term describing a township of political entity. Its designation had nothing to do with the wines that are produced there, although the town became famous for that reason. It therefore stretches things to try and detail the characteristics of a “Pauillac wine.” It is far better to realize that location, soil, subsoil and microclimate have more to do with the development taste and flavor than with a township label, helpful though that designation might be. Still, people will wonder why Lafite, which does not share a comparable location or subsoil as Latour, does not more closely resemble its fellow “Pauillac wine.” The neighboring estate of Chateau Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, is a second growth that has been producing wines of exceptional quality ever since Mme. May de Lencquesaing and her husband, the late General Herve de Lencquesaing, took the property over in the Seventies. Since then “Pichon Lalande,” as nearly everyone calls this wine, has known one superb vintage after another. The property is beautifully maintained, and every inch is well used, for vines or residential purposes. Pichon Lalande’s neighbor across the street, also a second growth and formerly part of the same property, Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron, is a somewhat sturdier wine, with less finesse, but now long recovered from its status as second to its neighbor. I have found recent vintages to be well made, full of depth, fruit and flavor. Towards the town of Pauillac, Chateau Lynch Bages would clearly deserve a double promotion from its current fifth growth status in the event of a reclassification of the wines of the Medoc. This full styled wine has improved greatly over the years, and many writers concluded that Chateau Lynch Bages was the wine of the vintage for 1985. The first wine to be carried aloft by an astronaut was a bottle of Chateau Lynch Bages, which a French astronaut took on a space mission. There are no reports yet on the effects of extraterrestrial travel on the wine aging process. Another fifth growth achiever is Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste, set further away from the river, but having something of the same largeness as Chateau Lynch Bages. It is a wine that is still relatively well priced. Compare it with a Lynch Bages of the same vintage and let us know the results! I will conclude this brief survey with mention of Chateau Pontet Canet, a fifth growth and the largest producer of classified wine in the Medoc. It is a fine wine of medium…
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