2018 le pin, pomerol

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Bottle size (ML)

Why We're Buying

Château Le Pin, also known as Le Pin, is a small estate in Pomerol that produces red wines with enormous price tags. How enormous? The average bottle costs well over $3,000, with select vintages retailing in the five-figures. This remarkable merlot returned 39.7 on investment from 2017 to 2021.

Critics Scores

James Suckling

The density and texture to this Le Pin is very surprising. It’s tannic and intense with an angular and stony-mineral undertone. Full-bodied yet energetic and edgy. Great structure. Reminds me of the great 1986.

Jeb Dunnuck

About as sexy as wine gets, the 2018 Le Pin comes from a tiny vineyard located just across from Vieux Château Certan and is always 100 Merlot brought up in new barrels. It reveals a deep purple color as well as a heavenly bouquet of crème de cassis, roasted coffee, vanilla, and toasted spice. Deep, full-bodied, seamless, and incredibly layered on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins, it's already approachable, with the flamboyant style of the vintage, yet should evolve for decades. It’s a brilliant Pomerol in the making.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2018 Le Pin is made of 100 Merlot, picked the last week of September with yields of 30 hectoliters per hectare. The wine has a pH of 3.7, an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 70 and 14.5 alcohol. Deep purple-black in color, it is a little reserved to begin, offering glimpses of tar, fertile loam and truffles with slowly emerging notes of baked black cherries, stewed plums, mulberries and underbrush plus hints of black pepper, hoisin and chargrill with a waft of garrigue. Full-bodied, the palate is loaded with taut, muscular fruit and heaps of earthy accents, with a firm frame of ripe, rounded tannins and just enough seamless freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully savory.

Vinous

The 2018 Le Pin is dense, rich and seductive, with all of the textural richness that is such a signature. Le Pin is, of course, 100 Merlot fermented entirely in new oak. There is a touch of new wood in the en primeur sample that needs time to fully assimilate, which I expect will not be a problem over time. More than anything else, I am impressed with the wine's freshness and overall energy. The 2018 comes in 14.5 alcohol, the highest ever here, and yet that is not especially evident. A closing burst of floral overtones and red/purplish berry fruit leaves a lasting impression.