Le Pin 2009

This shows intense fruit, with plums, boysenberry and cherries with cocoa, black olives and coffee bean. Amazing aromas. Full-bodied, with ultra-fine tannins and fabulous fruit. Such length and class to this. Wonderfully crafted. Best Le Pin since the perfect 1998. Try in 2020.

Served blind at the Southwold 2009 tasting. There is a beguiling airiness to this Le Pin: brilliant delineation, feminine, lovely black cherry and cassis and stunning minerality. There is wonderful tension. The palate is medium-bodied with great finesse and understatement. This saunters to greatness, the finish incredibly long and compelling. This is a stupendous Le Pin from Jacques Thienpont. Tasted January 2013.

Exceptional purity and a blockbuster nose of mocha, black cherry liqueur, mulberries and plums are followed by an extravagantly rich wine that seems to have a nearly endless finish. Truly haute couture of Merlot, so to speak, this wine has a finish that goes well past a minute, with wonderfully sweet tannins and a provocative, concentrated, broad mouthfeel that is remarkably luxurious. This is amazing stuff! It should drink well for 20-25 years. This is undeniably the greatest Le Pin I have tasted at such an infantile age. There are about 500 cases of this wine, which is made by the Thienpont family, the owners of Vieux Chateau Certan. One hundred percent Merlot, it continues to possess the exoticism of previous vintages, but the oak at present is far better crafted and integrated than in the debut vintage of 1979.