17/06/2026
A masterclass in liquid history, elevated by the unique physics of the Highveld. 🇿🇦✨
​Meeting Nicolas Glumineau—the maestro guiding both Château de Pez and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande—revealed a profound sensory truth: Johannesburg’s thin air acts as a natural amplifier for fine wine. At 1,700 meters above sea level, the reduced atmospheric pressure coaxes hidden, delicate aromatics out of the glass while imbuing serious, structural tannins with a vibrant, bouncy energy.
​Under the stewardship of the Rouzaud family (of Champagne Louis Roederer fame), Nicolas has spent over a decade adapting these historic properties to modern climate extremes.
We tasted this evolution across five distinct chapters:
​• Château de Pez 2018: Rooted in Saint-Estèphe’s ancient, water-retaining clay base. A hot, volatile year required pulling workers from summer holidays two weeks early to capture the fruit at peak freshness. The result is a vibrant, deeply gastronomic wine wrapped in a serious tannic coat. (MC94+)
​• Réserve de la Comtesse 2018: Voluptuous, seductive, and deeply concentrated. It floods the palate with black fruit, ganache, and graphite, yet floats with an ethereal floral lift and a seamless, polished texture that punches far above its second-wine status. (MC97)
​• Château Pichon Comtesse 2011: An intellectual triumph born of adversity. A violent September hail storm forced a rescue harvest two days early, decimating the Merlot and leaving a record 78% Cabernet Sauvignon to run the show. Time has transformed its youthful austerity into an unshowy, airy masterpiece of dried tea leaf and bitter blood orange. (MC98)
​• Château Pichon Comtesse 2008: Left Bank purists know the beauty of this late-harvest, linear vintage. Sadly, the bottle fell victim to severe TCA cork taint—a silent heartbreak that left the palate inert. (Unrated)
