Chateau Le Pin 2022

Ripe fruit, mineral, citrus notes, toasty aromas, plums, sour cherries; on the palate very concentrated, ripe-fruited, round, dense, opulent—two mouthfuls of wine—yet it stays compact and defined; there is a mass of tannins, silky and woven into the fruit, with a magnificent length; a monumental wine that seems almost never-ending.

Intense nose, full of aromatic complexity - perfumed roses, violets, irises, and sweet red fruit with iron filings and bitter orange. Thick but glossy, rich yet streamlined, layered vertically with electric freshness. Pure pleasure, hedonistic yet uplifting, seamless in its balance. Silky and bright, with a bitter pineapple tropicality, salty tang, liquorice, and cola. Ends mineral and fresh mint. Utterly seductive, capturing the heat as fruit, not spice. A 2022 with pure emotion.

This shows purity of fruit with energy and focus. Medium-bodied, it has a precise and micro-polished palate giving refined, seamless tannins that are very silky and tensioned. Wow. Touches of iron, black pepper, hazelnuts and some finely etched wood spices and cream that will take a few years to digest. Hints of dark earth/mushrooms, citrus and black sesame as well. Long, vibrating and beautiful, with focus at the end. A more approachable young Pomerol, but it will hold beautifully for the next 20 years. Drink from 2028.

The 2022 Le Pin is a very pretty, sexy wine. The richness of the year is evident in the wine's super-ripe profile and textural feel. Blackberry jam, spice, apricot, black tea, new leather, chocolate and a kiss of French oak build in a sumptuous, potent Pomerol. The 2022 will need time to be at its best. To be sure, extreme heat and drought do not present the most optimal conditions for an early-ripening variety such as Merlot, especially on gravel. The 2022 is a decidedly exotic Le Pin and a wine that will thrill hedonists.

Quite floral in nature, it is the vivacious nature, sensuality, and freshness in the fruits that stand out. Picture, velvety-textured, black plums with dark chocolate, saffron, orange peel, cumin and black raspberries that caress and paint your palate with layers of fruit. There is a sublime sense of purity, paired with elegance and vivacity that sticks with you in the precise finish for close to 60 seconds. Produced from 100% Merlot, 14.4% ABV, 3.77 pH, the harvest took place September 6 - September 17. Yields were only 29 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2026-2055. 98-100 Pts.

Wow, the 2022 Château Le Pin is absolutely stunning and has a heavenly perfume of black raspberries, spicy wood, flowers, incense, and camphor that develops beautifully with time in the glass. With sensational elegance, full-bodied richness, ultra-fine tannins, and flawlessly integrated oak, it's one of the 2022s that's just about impossible to resist. As always, this cuvée is 100% Merlot from a tiny parcel not far from Vieux Chateau Certan, and the 2022 was raised in 65% new French oak. While this wine is frightfully expensive and hard to find, it certainly brings the goods in 2022!

100% Merlot, 14.4% vol., pH 3.77, 29 hl/ha. What an incredible intensity this Le Pin delivers: freshly picked wild strawberries, raspberry purée, sour-cherry juice, an intoxicating iris perfume, dried rosemary and oregano—like a mille-feuille. The palate is sublime, with a silky texture, a cocoa-like tannin frame, dancing energy, a mineral core and a perfectly sculpted body. In the concentrated finish, Pomerol bursts forth, ending on a basket of sour cherries, a noble cassis spice and a regal, fine-grained astringency. Along with Trotanoy, it ranks among the finest wines of the appellation. When I cheekily asked whether this was the best Le Pin, Jacques smiled and replied: “No, I’m never satisfied and I want to improve every single time!”

Delivers the plush texture of Le Pin, with rippling cassis and blueberry fruits, bitter slabs of chocolate, slate, crushed rocks. The extreme ripeness of the year seems effortless at a property that knows how to capture your attention, and how to draw velvety tannins around intensely spiced fruits. A slow build through the palate, need to take your time to explores the depths of this wine, give it time. Expertly structured and intense. Harvest September 6 to 17, here yield 29hl/h, 3.77ph, 65% new oak. Potential upscore in bottle.

A bold, captivating nose where the lusciousness of ripe fruit intertwines with delicate floral notes and a deep, earthy touch reminiscent of forest moss. The palate is powerful and intense: piercing black fruit, with striking precision, unfolds in a generous texture, airy as a cloud. Flinty notes sharpen the whole, bringing a refined elegance and a straight, savoury finish.

In 2022, everything seemed set to produce powerful wines—wines flirting with exuberance, with “too much”—and yet the result is indeed driven by freshness, with a finesse and vibrancy that are surprising at first. The vines did stay green, but the berries weighed no more than a gram each, leading to an obvious concentration thanks to the skin-to-pulp ratio. The bouquet suggests generosity with notes of dark berries, but this is tempered by hints of liquorice and pepper. On the palate, the wine unfolds step by step, delicately—perhaps even a little shy on the attack—before ultimately asserting itself with serenity and vigour, all in refinement, with an unlikely freshness and tannins that are both silky and carrying. The finish, moreover, is all about power, and that is precisely the secret of Le Pin: it has plenty of horsepower, but the horses don’t gallop; it floats over the obstacles, like Calvaro! A wine that manages its power with unmatched delicacy. It’s almost the DRC of Pomerol! A smooth, mouth-watering, caressing, persistent finish. It ends on power… which is fantastic, considering the overall logic of delicacy.

Deep, intense, beautiful colour. Very aromatic nose, pure, refined and fruity, with lovely raspberry notes. Supple on entry, extremely aromatic through the mid-palate, the wine glides, caresses and melts away, before developing into a juicy, deep and magnificent finish. You just don’t want to spit it out!

The 2022 Le Pin has turned out very well, retaining impressive energy for such an early-ripening, well-draining site in so warm a year. Offering up aromas of sweet cherries, berries, licorice and violets, framed by a creamy patina of new oak, it's full-bodied, layered and exotic, with a sweet core of ripe fruit, polished tannins and a layered, seamless profile.