Pichon Baron Says 2018 Vintage Has `Exuberance in Fruit' After Warm Harvest

Chateau Pichon Baron benefited from the warm dry summer and harvest in 2018 to make wines that bore some similarities to the critically acclaimed 2016 vintage while having ``more exuberance in the fruit,'' according to Christian Seely, managing director of AXA Millesimes, which owns the estate.

Chateau Pichon Baron. Photo: Guy Collins

``The cabernets are magnificent and the merlots are the best we've seen,'' he said during a tasting at the estate April 5. ``The freshness is surprising given the maturity.'' He said Pichon, like many other estates across Bordeaux, benefited from the hot dry autumn which allowed vineyards to pick at maximum ripeness. ``It's a very luxurious thing,'' he said. ``We spaced out the harvest.'' For the main wine of Pichon Baron, the old vine merlots were harvested on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 and the cabernets sauvignons from Oct. 3 to 10. The main wine was a blend of 78 percent cabernet sauvignon and 22 percent merlot, aged for 18 months 80 percent in new barrels and 20 percent in one-fill barrels. 50 percent of the yield of the estate's 73 hectares of vines went into the main wine.