2010 LE PIN POMEROL - 1x75cl

Tasting Notes

• 

  Goedhuis, April 2011,
  Score: 95-97

  Quite a different wine on the Right Bank for many reasons, the 2010 Le Pin opens up with an attractive ruby red core and a beautifully delineated nose. A cornucopia of sweet red fruits spill delicately onto the palate - crunchy morello cherry, king plums and scented raspberry. Its tannins are a bit more grippy than its playful nose suggests indicating this has an incredible life ahead. RK

• 

  Neal Martin, April 2020,
  Score: 96

  The 2010 Le Pin is blessed with a supremely well defined and focused bouquet: red berry fruit, hints of star anis, black truffle and smoke that soar from the glass. The palate is very well balanced with fine grain tannins, a perfect line of acidity, very elegant in style with a precise, almost understated finish in context of the growing season. Outstanding. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal. o 2024-2050

• 

  Neal Martin, February 2013,
  Score: 95

  Jacques Thienpont has crafted an impeccable 2010 Le Pin. Cropped at 34hl/ha and offering 14.2% alcohol, it has a sumptuous bouquet of luscious blackberries and bilberries, crushed stone elements and a touch of cassis. It has certainly comes out of its shell since its showing in barrel. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, a sweet core of boysenberry and dark plum fruit, fresh acidity and a silky smooth, quite precocious cassis-driven finish that is long and sensual in the mouth. This is a beautiful ’10 Pomerol that deserves a decade in bottle.

• 

  Neal Martin, April 2011,
  Score: 93-95

  The sample taken from a blend of young vines and old vines in Taransaud and Seguin Moreau barrels, the Le Pin was picked from 24th September until 25th September, cropped at 34hl/ha. It delivers 14.2% alcohol with a total acidity of 3.20 and pH of 3.75. There was no saignée like in 2009. Tasted with the pneumatic drills in the background, it has a very pure bouquet with blackberry, crushed strawberry, limestone and a touch of rose petals, quite understated compared to recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with tensile tannins, good mineralité and tension here with vibrant, pure dark plum, boysenberry and cassis. Superb precision towards the finish, much tauter than the 2009, the Le Pin 2010 is a great Pomerol from the Pomerol undergoing a complete renovation (due to be completed in June 2011.)

• 

  Robert Parker, February 2013,
  Score: 100

  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.Drink: 2018-2048

• 

  Robert Parker, May 2011,
  Score: 96-98

  The 2010 Le Pin is 100% Merlot, aged in 100% new oak, but the Thienponts never want to hear that this is one of those "cult wines." It has been widely imitated by others thanks to its enormous success, and as I have written many times, it is a relatively exotic take on Bordeaux. The 2010 is the darkest colored Le Pin I have ever seen - black purple, no doubt due to tiny yields and the very small berries that were the result of the drought of 2010. Uber-concentrated, with fabulous cassis and black cherry fruit, licorice, and notes of subtle smoke and toast, the wine is full-bodied, with sweet tannin and remarkable thickness/unctuosity. It should prove to be one of the longest-lived Le Pins made in its first 30+ years of existence. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2030+.

• 

  James Suckling, April 2011,
  Score: 95-96

  This has muscles, with milk chocolate, plums and hints of wood. Very powerful, with lots of structure. It reminds me of the 1986 which is underrated and fabulous. A wine for aging. Super structured.

• 

  Decanter, April 2011,
  Score: 18.5

  Has all the charm of the '09 but to my mind a touch more vivacity and structure. Lifted Burgundian red fruit and spice aromas and flavour. Supple caressing fruit on the palate. Decadent sweetness on the mid-palate then long filigree tannins. Drink 2020-2035.

• 

  Jancis Robinson, April 2011,
  Score: 18

  Blend from different barrels. Very dark crimson and voluptuous. Lovely combination of richness, savour and freshness. A big step up. Fresh minerality on the finish. Jacques Thienpont was worried about the Merlots, and Alexandre Thienpont encouraged picking here so that he could pick at Vieux Château Certan. Most unusual freshness. Sinewy. Really racy but with great density. Had two Oz oenologists on hand in case they needed help in alcohol reduction but in the event didn't need touse them. Jacques says he would like to have waited a little longer but the results aren't too bad,are they? Drink 2020-2030

• 

  Wine Spectator, April 2011,
  Score: 96-99

  This is a stunning display of purity, with lush raspberry and boysenberry fruit, that never gets heady despite its obvious weight. Alluring spice and graphite notes flicker, but for now this is still exuberantly youthful and primal. And very, very long. Tasted non-blind. -J.M.

More Tasting Notes Hide More Tasting Notes

Producer

Château Le Pin

A true pioneer, proprietor Jacques Thienpont was one of the first garagistes in Bordeaux. He makeshis wine in a space under the house that could serve as a garage if it weren't in use as a winecellar. He differs from many of his fellow garagistes, in that he insists on producing terroir-driven, balanced Pomerol, while many others still produce over-extracted, ultra-ripe wines.