Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

The château

Pierre de Rauzan founded the estate in 1689, and the Pichon Longueville family owned it from 1694 for more than 2 centuries. Baron Joseph de Pichon-Longueville, born under Louis XV, lived through 3 revolutions, 5 kings, 2 republics and an empire before he died in 1849. What the brokers ranked a second growth in 1855 was the estate as he had left it, and it was then being divided. Virginie de Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, and her sisters took 30 hectares, and she built the château that carries her name. The trade caught up quickly: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed 2 estates side by side among the second growths in 1868, Pichon-Longueville under the Baron and Pichon-Longueville-Lalande under the Comtesse, and still named her in 1898. A single ranking of 1855 had become 2 châteaux within 13 years.

The Miailhe era began in 1925. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing inherited in 1978 and ran the estate until 2007, when she sold it to Champagne Louis Roederer, the family company run by Frédéric Rouzaud. Nicolas Glumineau has been general manager and winemaker since 2012. The vineyard lies in the southern strip of Pauillac that Latour and the 2 Pichons share between them, opposite Pichon Baron and next to Latour: 114 hectares in more than 100 plots on gravel rises over clay and sand, with a stretch across the line in Saint-Julien, rare among the classified growths. The vines average 28 years; Cabernet Sauvignon covers 72% of the vineyard, Merlot 24%, Cabernet Franc 3% and Petit Verdot 1%. A conversion to organic farming across the whole vineyard began in 2021, and the estate holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3. Pichon Comtesse Réserve is the second wine.

The style has always leaned toward grace rather than force. The 1995, which I tasted in January 2025, showed black fruit, earth and flowers, the tertiary notes overtaking what remained of the fruit, gentle tannins and a long finish, with real depth and balance; and the second wine of 2011, still labeled Réserve de la Comtesse, which I tasted in December 2025, gave cedar, graphite and cassis in a medium-bodied, refined frame, a reminder of how pleasant classic Pauillac can be when it is not trying to flex.

At a glance

Appellation

Pauillac

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855; Michelin Guide, 2 grapes (2026)

Owner

Champagne Louis Roederer, since 2007; the Pichon Longueville family from 1694, the Miailhe family from 1925, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing from 1978 to 2007

Direction

Nicolas Glumineau, general manager and winemaker, since 2012

Vineyard

114 hectares in more than 100 plots, part of them in Saint-Julien; vines 28 years old on average

Soil

Gravel rises over clay and sand Terroir of Pauillac →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 72%, Merlot 24%, Cabernet Franc 3%, Petit Verdot 1%

Farming

Organic conversion across the whole vineyard since 2021; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3

Wines

Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande; Pichon Comtesse Réserve

In history

Printed apart from the Baron’s estate among the second growths from 1868