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33250 Pauillac
France
Tél. 05.56.59.19.40
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As 2003 begins full of new year resolutions and best wishes, please allow me to share mine with you :

May 2003 be a blessed year for all.

May 2003 be a great and beautiful year.

May our world learn at last how to find peaceful words and means to solve difficult problems.

May the tragedies that have followed September 11, 2001 cease.

But isn't it also the time to ask real questions?

  • The world and its riches are they being used and developed correctly ?


  • The world and its riches are they being respected, or are they being wasted and destroyed ?


  • Is humanity not in the process of getting its values all wrong ?


  • Are the relations between men and those between nations based on lasting values or are they only being exploited in the short term view ?


  • Are the immense scientific advances made as a result of man's intelligence and hard work providing humanity with security and quality of life, or are they ending up by causing anguish to some and extreme poverty to many ?


  • Is humanity progressing ?
Are we able to prepare a great future for humanity?

In our humble sphere as viticulturists, we can only insist on the importance of everything that reinforces and celebrates friendship and solidarity between men.

And wine is the symbol of this.


May de Lencquesaing
  
     
  This vintage promises to be most interesting. As everyone knows, the spring and early summer have been unusually cold and rainy all over Europe.

In Pauillac, the flowering happened under difficult weather conditions.

In June, the green harvest was made so that all the grapes with "coulure" and millerandage were cut down.

In August, again the véraison took place under difficult conditions, and at the end of August, we proceeded to a second green harvest. We cut down all the grapes that had not properly turned red, leaving only the best clusters and cutting down the production.

Then came SEPTEMBER and the hoped for miracle: a lovely beautiful Indian summer, warm to very warm in the day, cool and windy at night, with a perfect sanitary control of the grapes.

On Monday, September 30th, we started picking this EXTRAORDINARY vintage.

Extraordinary because most unusual, and probably extremely interesting.

Small yield, lovely small grapes with beautiful skins, concentrated must, very high alcoholic content, good balance of acidity, lovely color. The first days, we picked the Merlots which were of great quality.

Then we went on picking the Cabernet Sauvignon, still acquiring day after day from the wonderful weather more complexity and power. Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were picked last at the best of their maturity.

This vintage might be rather tannic like 1988, perhaps elegant like 1978.

The new baby 2002 is born.


     
Email : pichon@pichon-lalande.com
© Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande