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2021 is Jacques Thienpont’s last vintage making this great wine himself, the culmination of 43 years making some of Bordeaux’s most spectacular wines since he purchased this iconic 2.7 hectare plot in 1979. A stressful year, but the result lives up to all our expectations. Very sensual on the nose, plums, dark Morello cherry and kirsch. With charming layers of generosity, this is naturally full and has good drive, freshness, life and persistence at the end. A brilliant way for Jacques to end his wine making career!
2021 is Jacques Thienpont’s last vintage making this great wine himself, the culmination of 43 years making some of Bordeaux’s most spectacular wines since he purchased this iconic 2.7 hectare plot in 1979. A stressful year, but the result lives up to all our expectations. Very sensual on the nose, plums, dark Morello cherry and kirsch. With charming layers of generosity, this is naturally full and has good drive, freshness, life and persistence at the end. A brilliant way for Jacques to end his wine making career!
The 2021 Le Pin was picked from 25 September to 4 October at a respectable 35hL/ha. Jacques Thienpont remarked how Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont had tended the vineyard so well throughout the year and for the first time they oversaw the vinification and the current élevage. It has a beautifully-defined bouquet, less ostentatious than recent vintages, unfurling with quite mineral-rich red and black fruit. The palate follows in a similar vein, a Le Pin imbued with a sense of athleticism, no excess fat, framed by fine tannins and a laser-focused finish. The terroir really shines through in 2021 perhaps more than in other feted vintages. Wonderful. This has 13.4% alcohol. Drink 2029 - 2055
The 2021 Le Pin is a delicate, refined wine that is still coming together in barrel. Bright saline accents and vivid floral aromatics lend energy to a core of red-fleshed fruit. The 75% new oak is expertly judged. Production is down quite a bit, about 14 barrels instead of the more typical 20 or so. The 2021 is a somewhat unusual, lighter style of Le Pin. I can't wait to see how it ages. Drink 2031-2061
I tasted the 2021 Le Pin several times this spring, and on every occasion the wine showed brilliantly. Wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, plums, exotic spices, vine smoke and carnal nuances, it's medium to full-bodied, sumptuous and enveloping, with a velvety attack, supple tannins and a long, penetrating finish. Seamless and impressively concentrated, it demonstrates how precocious, well-drained sites such as Le Pin came into their own in the 2021 growing season. As usual, it's 100% Merlot, and this year it checks in at 13.4% alcohol.
Jacques Thienpont introduced me to Diana Berrouet-Garcia at our tasting, joking he would retire and spend the rest of his life on a beach. I cannot see this happening, but this pioneering gent surely deserves a couple of days off, so who could argue with him rolling up his trousers and kicking off his loafers as long as he hangs around for a couple of days each year around EP time! As always, Jacques was happy to doff his hat to his VCC family members for keeping his vines clean and ship-shape during the testing growing season, and with well-drained plots, he didn’t suffer too much anyway. There were no mildew problems here, and with slight chaptalisation from 12.2% to 13-ish coupled with a bit of saignée he and Diana arrived at a wine that would stop a runaway truck with its overriding sense of power and grace. This is one of the most aromatic and ethereal Le Pin vintages I have tasted. Jacques loves this 2021-style more than the ’18, ’19 and ’20, and I concur. But he reasons that it is a 10am wine and that it is so delicious he could be tempted to open a second. Of course, he has the keys to the cellar, so this is his privilege. I, for one, will be ringing Diana and enquiring about his upcoming beach holiday plans while booking brunch dates with her from now 'til eternity if this is their corporate motto! In all seriousness, this is a compelling and shimmeringly beautiful Le Pin. Of course, it will make old bones, but no one in their right mind would let this wine linger for too long in their cellar. This wine should be drunk while it possesses all of the joie de vivre of its inventor! And that is that.
Jewel-ruby colour, this has layers of nuanced black fruits and campfire smoke on the nose. One of the more delicate renditions of Le Pin after a number of years of powerful seduction, this is vivid and juicy, heading towards brambled raspberry fruits, with finely-spun tannins and a twist of liquorice bud and grilled earth. The deep gravels of Le Pin (among the deepest of Pomerol, up to 6m) were able to ripen earlier than most areas, and this still delivers an arresting wine, with nuance, hidden power, and beauty. But it may not still the conversation in a room the way that the best vintages of this remarkable wine can do. 75% new oak. Diana Berrouet arrived in January 2022 (from Ch Petit Village) to Le Pin for the blending of this vintage, working with viticulturalist and consulting winemaker Guillaume Thienpont. 35hl/h yield, harvest November 25 to October 4. No frost impact, no mildew either. They made no 2013 and no 2003 here, so if they are making it, it's a good sign that they are happy with it.
The small sub-region of Pomerol is situated north-east of the industrious city of Libourne. Pomerol's soils are predominately iron-rich clay with a smattering of gravel that produce wines with extraordinary power and depth. As a result of this clay-dominance, it has the highest percentage of Merlot planted in all of Bordeaux. Certain châteaux are produced exclusively from this grape, but most incorporate smaller quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc as well. Despite its hefty (if not exclusive) proportion of Merlot, many people think of wines from this region as separate entities. As one wine aficionado stated recently, "It's not Merlot. It's Pomerol." Despite the region's small size, Pomerol contains some of the world's most sought after (and expensive) wines including Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur, l'Evangile and Vieux Château Certan. Unlike other Bordelais subregions, there is no system of classification. The châteaux are traded on reputation alone.
