Sensuous, silky, opulent, velvety, and rich, the layers of exotically-textured cherries seem endless here. The floral, red pit fruit, citrus, and cocoa perfume get the party started, but it is on the palate where this wine really shines. Drink from 2022-2054.
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6 Vintages Le Pin vs Petrus vs Lafleur vs Other Pomerol: All wines tasted single blind, not decanted. Served in 6 vintage flights with a alternating 4th Pomerol added to every flight. A few observations: 1) Le Pin handily won this tasting, for me (4 out of 6 vintages at 96/97 pts) and the consensus. Made in a charming way, with loads of perfectly integrated, luxurious oak-derived notes, this wines drink well young and works very well in a larger tasting like this were you can’t follow the wines over an evening. Complex, round, intense, sexy yet elegant. 2) Lafleur came in second, despite mostly only hinting at its potential with very high complexity, it’s wonderful, typical herbal and earthy notes, all embedded in an impeccable, light structural frame. But they need time. 3) Most vintages of Petrus underperformed tonight (all below 95 pts). They would have needed more time to open up and come together. 4) 2009/10 vintages are great and unsurprisingly got the highest scores, 2008 confirmed it status as a Bdx vintage that is excellent to drink today. More information/rankings in the tasting story.
TN: Le Pin usually shows very luxurious coffee and toasty notes on the palate mixed with ripe but not too ripe dark and red berries. In 2009 that is all a bit more intense but still not over the top. A complex and very sensual nose. On the palate a rainbow of aromas with ripe red berries, blue fruit, floral notes, minerality, herbs, toasty notes. Still ripe(r than other vintages) but not as ripe as the nose suggested and not as ripe as many other right bank wines in 2009, and even with nice blue fruit notes and floral aromas you don’t usually get in hotter vintages. Highly complex, so perfectly delinated. Very fine, velvety tannins, lots of tension, high freshness, superbly creamy. It is not as light and weightless as in other vintages but still not excessive in any way. This is a very complete wine which will still need to flesh out a bit over the next decade or two. 96/97 pts, consistent with a bottle 3 years back (rated 96 pts).
Decanting: A short decant should do the job.
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Petrus vs. Le Pin vs. Lafleur 2004-2011, blind (Fribourg): Amazing nose here, similar style like the 2010 with bakery, dark fruit and toast. Beautiful soft palate, very sexy, polished. Awesome. 99, WOTN #2, only slightly out-shined by the 2010 Le Pin
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Pétrus vs Lafleur vs Le Pin (Fribourg): Sexy, multi-dimensional with layer after layer, sweet accents, tobacco and cigar box, dried herbs, seasoning, espresso and roasted coffee beans all adding to a well-defined bouquet of mixed berries. Fresh palate with great acidity and an intricate structure. Tannins were still quite mouth coating and overall not yet ready and best cellared for quite a few more years. But in spite of this, the Le Pin 2009 is already flirting hard with perfection and there is definitely a 100 points potential here, only a question of time. This was the winner of the tasting, ahead of Le Pétrus 2009 and Le Pin 2010. Luckily a completely different experience than I had 3 years ago during a vintage horizontal.
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A few days ago I participated in a once in a lifetime tasting organized by Armin Diel. We tasted 12 vintages of wine icon Château Le Pin from Pomerol, all out of magnum bottles from Armin’s private cellar. All were in fantastic shape - even Monsieur Alexandre Thienpont took part in this tasting. What an extraordinary experience. Today’s market prices for magnums are between 7,000-18,000 bucks per bottle. Production figures are at the end of each vintage.
2000 Most elegant and complex one, perfect balance, felt very classic. 97/100 5,678 std / 274 mg
2004 Beautiful nose, nice grip on the palate, great ripe fruit. 95/100 8,800 std / 300 mg
2005 Showed some soft tertiary notes, fantastic depth and structure. Incredible balance. 97/100 5,900 std / 350 mg
2006 Elegant nose with soft aging notes. Beautiful balance and depth. 95/100 5,420 std / 340 mg
2007 Good structure and balance. Some green tannins. 93/100 7,200 std / 360 mg
2009 Super complexity, lots of fruits, but not overdone. Incredible depth. 96/100 5,882 std / 310 mg
2010 Fantastic complexity. Some beautiful mineral notes and an endless finish. 97/100 5,035 std / 234 mg
2011 Great depth and fine fruit structure. Alcohol felt a little too dominant. 93/100 5,450 std / 287 mg
2015 Extraordinary vintage. Power, fruit, depth and elegance, it had everything! Endless finish. 98/100 5,508 std / 280 mg
2016 Great fruit structure, tannins not integrated yet. Very long finish. 95/100 5,676 std / 298 mg
2017 Elegant vintage, very precise structure. Tannins are still grippy, not integrated yet. Will be fantastic in the future. 95/100 4,339 std / 441 mg
2018 Great fruit notes, some vanilla too. Beautiful complexity. Alcohol is a little hot. Too young, needs more time. 94/100 4,505 std / 372 mg
I won’t call a winner this time, drinking these icons side by side was a fantastic experience and although some vintages were showing not as good as others, all were absolutely enjoyable. Thank you Armin for the beautiful evening. Cheers 🍷
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2009 Bordeaux 10 years in the bottle 2-day horizontal; 6/23/2019-6/24/2019 (Fribourg): Part of a grand Bordeaux 2009 tasting spanning 2 days that revealed 1) a right bank struggling with overripe fruit and overwhelming tannins, 2) wide spreak between top performers and laggards, 3) left bank, and especially Margaux, outshone the right bank cousins, 4) Top wines: Palmer, Margaux, Cheval Blanc, Vieux Chateau Certan.
Tasting note: Red, ripe fruit. Some menthol but otherwise fruit-forward with only little secondary aromatics .Full bodied with a strong finish.
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Bordeaux 2009 - 10 Years On - 47 Reds; 6/23/2019-6/24/2019: 2009 Bordeaux after 10 years. 48 red wines. The left bank (average rating 94.2) clearly trumps the right bank (92.6): Elegance, purity and freshness vs over-extraction, ripeness and oxidation. But there are some winners on the right bank (Cheval, Petrus, Hosanna for now, Lafleur, Trotanoy medium-term) but the highest scores were given to left bank wines (Margaux #1 overall, Palmer, Mouton, for now, Latour, St. Juliens medium-term). I guess purists will not like the loads of oak-derived aromas which in some wines are great but can make the wines a bit slutty (Cheval, Margaux, quite a lot of right banks). But there are plenty of more classically shaped wines too. Overall, the 2009s are a lot of fun with many pockets of greatness but I would be very selective on the right bank. If you like more elegant, subtle and classic wines I would focus on 2005/2010/2016. All wines tasted blind and without decanting.
TN: Expressive, fine nose with ripe dark fruit, toast, coffee and nutty aromas. Same aromas along more red fruit aromas, some cedar aromas. Fairly complex, good delineation, medium intensity (that‘s where it is a tad behind some other wines), very fine structure with perfectly fine tannins, good freshness, good length. One of the more elegant examples and likely one of the wines with a long life. I would give it at least a few hours in the decanter if you open a bottle today.
Average blind score 4 tasters: 94.5 Rank: 22nd out of 48 wines (shared rank with L'Evangile, Pontet Canet, Clinet)
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66x Parker 100-Pointers from Bordeaux 1947-2010 tasted blind (Switzerland): Tasted blind. Dark purple. Expressive nose of dark fruit with lots of toast, black tea, cola, flowers. Wow, great nose indeed. Medium-full bodied, a bit lighter than the Petrus, elegant and caressing tannins. I was starting to think that I was being over critical with the last 10 or so 100-Pointer wines, mostly from St.Emilion but when I taste this wine as well as the Petrus 09 I am vindicated. Good mid mouth volume does not have to come at the cost of over extraction and harsh tannins. A great wine, forget about the price. Group score: 18.17, group rank: 26/64
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2009 Le Pin has a perfume of coconut, dark berries, black cherries, and hints of citrus flowers accompanied by spice notes. Velvety textured, and richly concentrated, this exotic wine finishes with a blast of plums. 95-97 Pts
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Barrel tasting at Le Pin. Deep color. A bit dominated by the barrel right now, but with enough swirling this shows a lot of surprisingly fresh and impressive raw material. Give what I have heard about the vintage I expected something more sweet and obvious, but this was sublime and shockingly drinkable.
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This clearly shows oak at this stage, the fruit is very forward, ripe jammy fruit, big scale yet in perfect harmony that is very well crated, no noticeable tannin. This is the most showy and hedonistic wine that I had tasted in 2009 EP. Speaking of Terroir, I didn’t find much in this wine. A thought came to me, this is the French equivalent of Screaming Eagle, perhaps not the best but one of the best crafted and the rarest Bordeauxs very civilized yet very showy. 96-98 pts.
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11/2/2022 - Jeff Leve wrote: 99 Points
Sensuous, silky, opulent, velvety, and rich, the layers of exotically-textured cherries seem endless here. The floral, red pit fruit, citrus, and cocoa perfume get the party started, but it is on the palate where this wine really shines. Drink from 2022-2054.
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5/15/2022 - Cailles wrote: 97 Points
6 Vintages Le Pin vs Petrus vs Lafleur vs Other Pomerol: All wines tasted single blind, not decanted. Served in 6 vintage flights with a alternating 4th Pomerol added to every flight. A few observations: 1) Le Pin handily won this tasting, for me (4 out of 6 vintages at 96/97 pts) and the consensus. Made in a charming way, with loads of perfectly integrated, luxurious oak-derived notes, this wines drink well young and works very well in a larger tasting like this were you can’t follow the wines over an evening. Complex, round, intense, sexy yet elegant. 2) Lafleur came in second, despite mostly only hinting at its potential with very high complexity, it’s wonderful, typical herbal and earthy notes, all embedded in an impeccable, light structural frame. But they need time. 3) Most vintages of Petrus underperformed tonight (all below 95 pts). They would have needed more time to open up and come together. 4) 2009/10 vintages are great and unsurprisingly got the highest scores, 2008 confirmed it status as a Bdx vintage that is excellent to drink today. More information/rankings in the tasting story.
TN: Le Pin usually shows very luxurious coffee and toasty notes on the palate mixed with ripe but not too ripe dark and red berries. In 2009 that is all a bit more intense but still not over the top. A complex and very sensual nose. On the palate a rainbow of aromas with ripe red berries, blue fruit, floral notes, minerality, herbs, toasty notes. Still ripe(r than other vintages) but not as ripe as the nose suggested and not as ripe as many other right bank wines in 2009, and even with nice blue fruit notes and floral aromas you don’t usually get in hotter vintages. Highly complex, so perfectly delinated. Very fine, velvety tannins, lots of tension, high freshness, superbly creamy. It is not as light and weightless as in other vintages but still not excessive in any way. This is a very complete wine which will still need to flesh out a bit over the next decade or two. 96/97 pts, consistent with a bottle 3 years back (rated 96 pts).
Decanting: A short decant should do the job.
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5/11/2022 - Collector1855 wrote: 99 Points
Petrus vs. Le Pin vs. Lafleur 2004-2011, blind (Fribourg): Amazing nose here, similar style like the 2010 with bakery, dark fruit and toast. Beautiful soft palate, very sexy, polished. Awesome. 99, WOTN #2, only slightly out-shined by the 2010 Le Pin
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5/9/2022 - sirpat00 Likes this wine: 99 Points
Pétrus vs Lafleur vs Le Pin (Fribourg): Sexy, multi-dimensional with layer after layer, sweet accents, tobacco and cigar box, dried herbs, seasoning, espresso and roasted coffee beans all adding to a well-defined bouquet of mixed berries. Fresh palate with great acidity and an intricate structure. Tannins were still quite mouth coating and overall not yet ready and best cellared for quite a few more years. But in spite of this, the Le Pin 2009 is already flirting hard with perfection and there is definitely a 100 points potential here, only a question of time. This was the winner of the tasting, ahead of Le Pétrus 2009 and Le Pin 2010. Luckily a completely different experience than I had 3 years ago during a vintage horizontal.
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4/16/2022 - DrZett wrote: 96 Points
A few days ago I participated in a once in a lifetime tasting organized by Armin Diel. We tasted 12 vintages of wine icon Château Le Pin from Pomerol, all out of magnum bottles from Armin’s private cellar. All were in fantastic shape - even Monsieur Alexandre Thienpont took part in this tasting. What an extraordinary experience. Today’s market prices for magnums are between 7,000-18,000 bucks per bottle. Production figures are at the end of each vintage.
2000 Most elegant and complex one, perfect balance, felt very classic. 97/100 5,678 std / 274 mg
2004 Beautiful nose, nice grip on the palate, great ripe fruit. 95/100 8,800 std / 300 mg
2005 Showed some soft tertiary notes, fantastic depth and structure. Incredible balance. 97/100 5,900 std / 350 mg
2006 Elegant nose with soft aging notes. Beautiful balance and depth. 95/100 5,420 std / 340 mg
2007 Good structure and balance. Some green tannins. 93/100 7,200 std / 360 mg
2009 Super complexity, lots of fruits, but not overdone. Incredible depth. 96/100 5,882 std / 310 mg
2010 Fantastic complexity. Some beautiful mineral notes and an endless finish. 97/100 5,035 std / 234 mg
2011 Great depth and fine fruit structure. Alcohol felt a little too dominant. 93/100 5,450 std / 287 mg
2015 Extraordinary vintage. Power, fruit, depth and elegance, it had everything! Endless finish. 98/100 5,508 std / 280 mg
2016 Great fruit structure, tannins not integrated yet. Very long finish. 95/100 5,676 std / 298 mg
2017 Elegant vintage, very precise structure. Tannins are still grippy, not integrated yet. Will be fantastic in the future. 95/100 4,339 std / 441 mg
2018 Great fruit notes, some vanilla too. Beautiful complexity. Alcohol is a little hot. Too young, needs more time. 94/100 4,505 std / 372 mg
I won’t call a winner this time, drinking these icons side by side was a fantastic experience and although some vintages were showing not as good as others, all were absolutely enjoyable.
Thank you Armin for the beautiful evening.
Cheers 🍷
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6/23/2019 - sirpat00 wrote: 93 Points
2009 Bordeaux 10 years in the bottle 2-day horizontal; 6/23/2019-6/24/2019 (Fribourg): Part of a grand Bordeaux 2009 tasting spanning 2 days that revealed 1) a right bank struggling with overripe fruit and overwhelming tannins, 2) wide spreak between top performers and laggards, 3) left bank, and especially Margaux, outshone the right bank cousins, 4) Top wines: Palmer, Margaux, Cheval Blanc, Vieux Chateau Certan.
Tasting note:
Red, ripe fruit. Some menthol but otherwise fruit-forward with only little secondary aromatics .Full bodied with a strong finish.
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6/23/2019 - Cailles wrote: 96 Points
Bordeaux 2009 - 10 Years On - 47 Reds; 6/23/2019-6/24/2019: 2009 Bordeaux after 10 years. 48 red wines. The left bank (average rating 94.2) clearly trumps the right bank (92.6): Elegance, purity and freshness vs over-extraction, ripeness and oxidation. But there are some winners on the right bank (Cheval, Petrus, Hosanna for now, Lafleur, Trotanoy medium-term) but the highest scores were given to left bank wines (Margaux #1 overall, Palmer, Mouton, for now, Latour, St. Juliens medium-term). I guess purists will not like the loads of oak-derived aromas which in some wines are great but can make the wines a bit slutty (Cheval, Margaux, quite a lot of right banks). But there are plenty of more classically shaped wines too. Overall, the 2009s are a lot of fun with many pockets of greatness but I would be very selective on the right bank. If you like more elegant, subtle and classic wines I would focus on 2005/2010/2016. All wines tasted blind and without decanting.
TN: Expressive, fine nose with ripe dark fruit, toast, coffee and nutty aromas. Same aromas along more red fruit aromas, some cedar aromas. Fairly complex, good delineation, medium intensity (that‘s where it is a tad behind some other wines), very fine structure with perfectly fine tannins, good freshness, good length. One of the more elegant examples and likely one of the wines with a long life. I would give it at least a few hours in the decanter if you open a bottle today.
Average blind score 4 tasters: 94.5
Rank: 22nd out of 48 wines
(shared rank with L'Evangile, Pontet Canet, Clinet)
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9/16/2016 - Collector1855 wrote: 99 Points
66x Parker 100-Pointers from Bordeaux 1947-2010 tasted blind (Switzerland): Tasted blind. Dark purple. Expressive nose of dark fruit with lots of toast, black tea, cola, flowers. Wow, great nose indeed. Medium-full bodied, a bit lighter than the Petrus, elegant and caressing tannins. I was starting to think that I was being over critical with the last 10 or so 100-Pointer wines, mostly from St.Emilion but when I taste this wine as well as the Petrus 09 I am vindicated. Good mid mouth volume does not have to come at the cost of over extraction and harsh tannins. A great wine, forget about the price. Group score: 18.17, group rank: 26/64
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7/27/2010 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
2009 Le Pin has a perfume of coconut, dark berries, black cherries, and hints of citrus flowers accompanied by spice notes. Velvety textured, and richly concentrated, this exotic wine finishes with a blast of plums. 95-97 Pts
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6/27/2010 - Eric wrote:
Barrel tasting at Le Pin. Deep color. A bit dominated by the barrel right now, but with enough swirling this shows a lot of surprisingly fresh and impressive raw material. Give what I have heard about the vintage I expected something more sweet and obvious, but this was sublime and shockingly drinkable.
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4/1/2010 - dcwino wrote: 97 Points
This clearly shows oak at this stage, the fruit is very forward, ripe jammy fruit, big scale yet in perfect harmony that is very well crated, no noticeable tannin. This is the most showy and hedonistic wine that I had tasted in 2009 EP. Speaking of Terroir, I didn’t find much in this wine. A thought came to me, this is the French equivalent of Screaming Eagle, perhaps not the best but one of the best crafted and the rarest Bordeauxs very civilized yet very showy. 96-98 pts.
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