The wines, the people and the chateaux of the two Pichons could not be more different. Just visiting these two is a lesson in differences in contemporary winemaking and tastes. Not that the First Growths aren t with the times. Latour, for example, has some of the most sophisticated winemaking equipment around, all custom-built. Farther along in the M doc, in Pauillac, are Lafite and Mouton, owned by two sides of the Rothschild family.
Mouton is, well, Mouton.
There s a museum and a very American-style visitor center. The ch teau itself is only average and is not part of the tour, nor is Mouton Cadet made here. What is amazing is that grapes grow in the M doc at all. But there are miles and miles of vines with precocious plots of land that produce some of the most stunning and long-lasting wine in the world. At the end of a day of wine tasting, leave the M doc for the ocean and the seaside town of Arcachon.