Critic Notes
A squared and properly focused 2017 with chocolate, dark berries and silky tannins that envelop the palate. A Burgundian sensibility to this with a very fine texture of acidity and tannins that back up the elegant and supple fruit. A clarity and beauty to the wine.
Score: 96-97/100James Suckling
Deep crimson. Super-fragrant, almost floral, with very fine fruit and some toasty oak. So moreish, sweet-fruited and very silky already. Gorgeously silky and long. Almost a touch of burgundy to the sweet red fruit on the finish. (JH)
Score: 18.5-/20Jancis RobinsonDrinking Window: Drink 2025-2040
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Le Pin (100% Merlot) is a little reticent to begin, opening out to crushed black berries, warm black plums and wild blueberries with touches of forest floor, violets, star anise and cast iron pan with a waft of cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, it has a sensuous frame of very ripe, silken tannins and seamless freshness, flaunting a very elegant core of perfumed fruit and finishing with many, many mineral layers.
Score: 94-96/100Robert Parker
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Le Pin (100% Merlot) is a little reticent to begin, opening out to crushed black berries, warm black plums and wild blueberries with touches of forest floor, violets, star anise and cast iron pan with a waft of cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, it has a sensuous frame of very ripe, silken tannins and seamless freshness, flaunting a very elegant core of perfumed fruit and finishing with many, many mineral layers. Apr 2018, www.robertparker.com
Score: 94-96/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The 2017 Le Pin, which has 100% new oak as usual, was cropped at 32hl/ha with 13.9° alcohol. It has a perfumed bouquet with dark cherries, a touch of blue fruit, cold stone and a hint of incense. This is more opulent than the Vieux-Château-Certan, but with a bit more sensuality if not quite the same degree of complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannin, very smooth in texture with red fruit laced with sea salt and a suggestion of iodine. There is certainly good backbone to this Le Pin, although it is so silky towards the finish that it is barely tangible. A more backward Le Pin at the moment compared to the last three vintages but I am fascinated to see how this ages. Tasted twice and showing a little more structure in the second showing. Jacques Thienpont told me that around 500 cases will be produced.
Score: 93-95/Neal MartinDrinking Window: 2023 - 2045
No frost at Le Pin gave a normal yield of 32hl/ha, and the early season meant the harvest came in from 18-21 September. Picking over three days is relatively unusual here, and is something they ascribe to the arrival of Guillaume Thienpont over at Vieux Chateau Certan, as he looks after the viticulture through the year at both estates, along with his father Alexandre. This wine features some extremely bright spice, with touches of exoticism, tasted from a blend taken from 12 different barrels (the final blend happens only at the moment of bottling). It deepens and takes on plush definition with time in the glass, with those layers of featherlight but pulsating Le Pin tannins, but it displays more subtle opulence than in some years. All new oak, with malo in both Taransaud and Seguin Moreau barrels. 3.7pH.
Score: 92-/100Decanter
