Drunk from magnum, the 1993 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is in its prime today, wafting from the glass with notes of sweet red berry fruit, cigar box, loamy soil and orange rind. Medium-bodied, supple and satiny, with melted tannins, lively acids and fine mid-palate amplitude, it's an immensely charming, judiciously chaptalized middleweight that has aged with grace—and better than anyone could have anticipated. In the sense that this wine was austere when young but also won't be immensely long lived, timing when to open bottles is unusually critical, and readers with the 1993 Pichon Lalande in their cellars should make hay while the sun shines.

Pichon-Lalande's 1993 is not as fruity and soft as I expected. The wine exhibits light to medium body, an herbal, sweet, curranty nose, disjointed, awkward flavors, and an evolved personality with a pervasive greenness to its aromas and flavors. The wine is soft, and thus best consumed over the next 5-6 years.