Bring Out Your “Dead”: Pichon-Lalande 1957-2013

BY NEAL MARTIN | AUGUST 09, 2022

Château proprietors must be weary of requests to open their best vintages. Not for one moment do I suggest that tasting such wines is neither a pleasure nor a privilege and to do it for a job, well, it is faintly ridiculous. But I liken it to listening to your favourite song on repeat because eventually, you crave something else, something different.

That’s where yours truly comes in. I provide a service where winemakers are free to open alternative vintages, wines from challenging growing seasons, vintages that come with baggage. When I dropped in to Pichon-Lalande last September to meet Nicolas Glumineau, primarily to taste the 2019 in bottle, he asked if there were back vintages I wanted to taste. The conversation went something like this. I fully-admit to fabricating bits of our exchange.

“Funny you should ask,” I replied.

“Go on.”

“Could you open the worst vintages you have.”

Silence.

“What do you mean?” he asked.