2006 Le Pin, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Red • Dry • Full Bodied • Merlot
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Code: 20060600750001014192

Description

The 2006 Le Pin never quite fulfilled its glorious showing from barrel. It has a forward bouquet that's open, ready and sensual with kirsch, licorice and mint aromas. There is an unusual sense of precocity that is atypical for 2006. The medium-bodied palate has plenty of flesh, a touch of ripe red cherry, crushed strawberry notes and traces of sage and cedar. Is it a long-term proposition? I am not convinced. Still, you have to stand back and admire its precision, focus and charm. Tasted blind at a lunch in Bordeaux.

Drink 2019-2040, 93/100, Neal Martin (March 2025)
  • Colour
    Red
  • Sweetness
    Dry
  • Vintage
    2006
  • Alcohol
    13.5%
  • Grape
    Merlot
  • Body
    Full Bodied
  • Producer
    Le Pin

Critics reviews

James Suckling
93/100
Coffee bean and blackberry aromas, with hints of cedar, follow through to a full body, with sweet, ripe fruit and a chocolaty finish. Refined, this shows grace and beauty for the vintage.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Neal Martin
93/100
The 2006 Le Pin seems to have evolved quite far on the nose, though it remains very sensual with scents of kirsch, rose petals, liquorice and mint. There is a warmth to these aromatics that leave you feeling a bit giddy. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy ripe red cherry and crushed strawberry fruit, underlying sage and cedar scents surfacing towards the finish. I am not totally convinced this is a long-term Le Pin, but it has wonderful precision and such charm that you almost don't care about the price tag. It's a lovely, almost sexy Pomerol, although I feel that it does not quite match the potential it demonstrated in barrel. Tasted January 2016.
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (May 2016)
Robert Parker
93-96/100
This micro-cuvee of 500-600 cases of 100% Merlot offers exotic pain grille notes interwoven with lavish quantities of black, blue, and red fruits, an unctuous texture, and beautiful purity as well as length. Full-bodied with velvety tannins as well as extravagant fruit, it should drink well for 20-25 years.
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate

About The Wine

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
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Pomerol

With 150 or so producers and roughly 740 hectares of vineyards, the smallest of Bordeaux's major appellations is home to myriad bijou domaines – many making little more than 1,000 cases per annum. If the topography and architecture of Pomerol are typical, the style of its wines is anything but. The best vineyards are planted on a seam of rich clay extending across the raised plateau of Pomerol from the boundary of St Emilion.
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Le Pin

Le Pin is the most expensive wine in the world. Jacques Thienpont purchased the meagre 1.6 hectares of land for one million francs in 1979. The Thienpoints named their wine Le Pin after a solitary pine tree that shaded the property. By acquiring tiny adjoining plots of land, Jacques has doubled the size of Le Pin to five acres. The south-facing vineyard on a well-drained slope of gravel and sand is planted with Merlot (about 92%), and a small amount of Cabernet Franc.
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