2005 Le Pin, Pomerol, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Tasted at the Pomerol Comparative Exploration tasting in London, the 2005 Le Pin has never quite lived up to the billing when compared to other vintages from Jacques Thienpont's iconic Pomerol estate, yet that is begrudging what is still a gorgeous wine. It remains very youthful and limpid in colour.
The bouquet is much more Burgundian than I anticipated, with raspberry coulis, wild strawberry scents, fine mineralité, and poise. With time, there is more blue fruit emerging. The palate is sweet and candied on the entry, plush and sensual, saturated tannin with impressive depth.
You feel that perhaps it just egged on a little too much in the winery at the expense of some sophistication and delineation. However, in terms of pure pleasure, it is a delicious wine, albeit one with a hefty price tag.
Drink 2020 - 2045
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2018)
The 2005 Le Pin is a very pretty wine, perhaps a bit more floral and savoury and less opulent than it often is. Crushed raspberry, wild flowers, mint and dried herbs all lift from the glass effortlessly. Like most of its peers, the 2005 needs several hours of aeration to be at its best. It is an especially gracious, translucent wine that stands apart stylistically from the typically richer wines that have been made here.
Drink 2021 - 2035
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (April 2021)
The 2005 Le Pin is deep garnet-brick in color. Starting off a little shy, the nose is primary and youthful, with a fair bit of oak still poking through. It eventually opens out to notes of black cherry preserves and stewed plums with hints of red roses, pencil shavings, and fertile loam. Medium-bodied, flamboyant, and remarkably young and plump in the mouth, it has a firm and grainy texture with seamless freshness and an epically long finish. While tempting to drink now, give it another 5-7 years to find its stride and drink it over the next 30 years+. Le Pin is a tiny, 6.5 acre estate high on the plateau of Pomerol, mainly composed of sand and gravel, and thus very well drained. Purchased by Jacques Thienpont in late 1970s, the first vintage was 1979. The style tends to be perfumed and exotic, delivering opulence without weightiness. Only 500 cases were made in 2005.
Drink 2027 - 2057
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent (July 2022)
Tasted at Bipin Desai’s Le Pin vertical in Los Angeles. A magnificent Le Pin, deep garnet/ruby in colour. The nose has the clarity of crisp spring morning with notes of red fruits, violets, minerals, gravel and just a hint of dark chocolate that I have not picked up before. This is more Burgundian than I recall. The full-bodied has a velvety smooth entry and then you are gob-smacked by the concentration married with poise and tension. If anything, this 2005 has put on weight over the year with layers of strawberry, black plum, blueberry and cassis. The finish has a firm grip, a Pomerol that says: “don’t mess with me”. A tremendous wine that I am certain will continue to get better and better with passing years. 550 cases made.
Drink 2015 - 2030+
Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (November 2008)
About this WINE
Le Pin
Le Pin is the most expensive wine in the world. Jacques Thienpont purchased the meagre 1.6 hectares of land for one million francs in 1979. The Thienpoints named their wine Le Pin after a solitary pine tree that shaded the property. By acquiring tiny adjoining plots of land, Jacques has doubled the size of Le Pin to five acres. The south-facing vineyard on a well-drained slope of gravel and sand is planted with Merlot (about 92%), and a small amount of Cabernet Franc.
Le Pin's soil is a mixture of gravel and clay with a little sand and is exceptionally low yielding (between 30 to 35 hl/hc). The grapes are hand-harvested and are fermented in stainless steel before being matured in`200%` new oak barriques for between 14 and 18 months. Dany Rolland, wife of cult-oenologist Michel Rolland, is a consultant here.
Le Pin produces just 600 to 700 cases each year (Lafite Rothschild produces approximately 29,000 cases of wine a year and and Pétrus about 4,000) and its rarity is one of the driving forces behind its high prices. Le Pin produces super-concentrated, decadent, lush and lavishly oaked wines - they can be drunk young but are best with 7-10 years of bottle ageing.
Pomerol
Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux's major appellations, with about 150 producers and approximately 740 hectares of vineyards. It is home to many bijou domaines, many of which produce little more than 1,000 cases per annum.
Both the topography and architecture of the region is unremarkable, but the style of the wines is most individual. The finest vineyards are planted on a seam of rich clay which extends across the gently-elevated plateau of Pomerol, which runs from the north-eastern boundary of St Emilion. On the sides of the plateau, the soil becomes sandier and the wines lighter.
There is one satellite region to the immediate north, Lalande-de-Pomerol whose wines are stylistically very similar, if sometimes lacking the finesse of its neighbour. There has never been a classification of Pomerol wines.
Recommended Châteaux : Ch. Pétrus, Vieux Ch. Certan, Le Pin, Ch. L’Eglise-Clinet, Ch. La Conseillante, Ch. L’Evangile, Ch. Lafleur, Trotanoy, Ch. Nenin, Ch. Beauregard, Ch. Feytit-Clinet, Le Gay.
Merlot
The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.
Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Tasted at the Pomerol Comparative Exploration tasting in London, the 2005 Le Pin has never quite lived up to the billing when compared to other vintages from Jacques Thienpont's iconic Pomerol estate, yet that is begrudging what is still a gorgeous wine. It remains very youthful and limpid in colour.
The bouquet is much more Burgundian than I anticipated, with raspberry coulis, wild strawberry scents, fine mineralité, and poise. With time, there is more blue fruit emerging. The palate is sweet and candied on the entry, plush and sensual, saturated tannin with impressive depth.
You feel that perhaps it just egged on a little too much in the winery at the expense of some sophistication and delineation. However, in terms of pure pleasure, it is a delicious wine, albeit one with a hefty price tag.
Drink 2020 - 2045
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2018)
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