Château Le Pin, 2025
Château Le Pin, 2025
- 75cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Merlot
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Drinking window: 2035 - 2055
Est. delivery in 2028.
Le Pin is Bordeaux's most enigmatic property, a tiny 2.7-hectare vineyard in Pomerol that produces one of the world's most coveted wines. Jacques Thienpont's almost pure Merlot comes from ancient clay soils and is vinified with an obsessive attention to detail that borders on the mystical.
What the critics say:
"Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate rim brightening. Seductive cherry aroma, delicate licorice, cloves, fresh wild berry confit, incredibly seductive bouquet. Full-bodied, complex, black cherries, blackberries, ripe, firm tannins, dark fruit, a hint of extract sweetness, enormous length, sure maturity potential. Great nose and palate experience."
Le Pin's vineyards sit on a small plateau of iron-rich clay over crasse de fer, a unique iron-pan subsoil that's rare even in Pomerol. This blue clay retains moisture perfectly, allowing the Merlot vines to maintain freshness even in hot years. The iron content adds a distinctive mineral backbone and exotic spice character that sets Le Pin apart from other Right Bank estates.
Pomerol is Bordeaux's smallest major appellation, covering just 800 hectares of clay and gravel plateau on the Right Bank. Unlike the Médoc, there's no official classification here, but properties like Le Pin command prices that rival any First Growth. The appellation's clay soils favour Merlot, producing wines of exceptional richness and velvet texture that can age for decades.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
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Château Le Pin
