2010 | Chateau Le Pin

2010 vintage is incredible! In a different style, the wine is immense, remarkably precise and deeply structured. Another huge Le Pin that sublimates Merlot in all its splendour: a unique bottle for a majestic wine!

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Made from 100% Merlot (one percent for each rating point I’ve assigned), this wine is explosively rich and compelling. Dense plum/purple, it boasts the remarkable delineation and freshness that are hallmarks of this vintage. From a much smaller production than normal because of Merlot’s poor flowering, the very hot, dry growing and harvest conditions, this is a super-endowed, very rich Le Pin with its exotic new oak largely buried behind its extravagant concentration, power and richness. I don’t know what its natural alcohol level is, but I suspect it is pushing 15% in 2010. Rich, tannic, but exceptionally well-endowed, this is a sublime example of Merlot at its very finest. Forget it for 5-7 years (which is somewhat unusual for Le Pin) and drink it over the following three decades.

• Wine Spectator: Delivers the distilled essence of raspberry and kirsch fruit, from the captivating aromas to the racy, palate-coating feel, echoing nearly endlessly through the finish. There's also notes of briar, lightly pebbly tannins and a lingering hint of allspice to give this a shimmering background effect. In the end, this is primarily about the stunning purity of fruit on display.

Producer Information

Le Pin is a tiny 2.7-hectare (6-acre) property in the Pomerol district of Bordeaux. It was created in 1979 by the Thienpont family (owners of nearby Vieux Château Certan), and quickly rose to prominence to vie for the title of most expensive wine in the world. The 100 percent Merlot wine is extremely concentrated and lush; it can often be drunk young but is best with a decade of aging. The Le Pin vineyard is south-facing and sits on well-drained gravel and sand soils which give extremely low yields. There is also a small amount of Cabernet Franc planted. However, this not used in the Le Pin wine, and is gradually being replaced by Merlot. Grapes are harvested by hand and fermented in stainless steel before 14 to 18 months' aging in first one new oak barrel, and then a second. Production is obviously tiny, totaling just 600 to 700 cases per year – compared with 4,000 for Petrus and 20,000 and more for the Médoc First Growths. Le Pin is named after two pine trees at the vineyard. There is no true château on the property, though a new winery was opened in 2011, replacing an old farmhouse basement.

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