2011 Le Pin (Ex Chateau 2023)

The 2011 Le Pin is quite high-toned on the nose with pure black cherries, Seville orange mocha and fig, well defined and developing more pressed flower aromas with aeration. The palate is rounded and pure, velvety in texture, slightly lower in acidity than its peers but very harmonious with a touch of spice towards the finish. This seems to manifest more complexity with aeration with a prolonged spicy aftertaste. This is actually showing better than the bottle that I drank in 2020. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting.

Tasted blind. Bright garnet. Direct, convincing perfume. Lacks real intensity but the balance is good. Rather restrained with some mintiness. A model of restraint in fact. Impressive persistence. Nothing showy. Claret incarnate. (JR)

The 2011 Le Pin is a vintage that I tasted in barrel but inexplicably never in bottle. It was picked on September 12 and 13 at 35hl/ha and, significantly, it was the first vintage to be vinified in the new winery. I gave it a tepid reception back then, and almost a decade later, though Jacques Thienpont clearly has a soft spot for the 2011, I cannot confess to being as taken with it as the 2012 or 2014, for example. It has retained a Burgundy, quasi-Musigny bouquet of red berry fruit infused with mocha and black truffle, the mocha element becoming pronounced after three or four hours. You might describe it as comely, yet far from profound. The palate is medium-bodied with fine cohesion. I would not call the 2011 a complex Le Pin, although it has developed an appealing rounded body and slightly granular texture. The red fruit is infused with brown spices and mocha, a subtle gamy/ferrous note emerging with aeration. But it never quite kicks in like the finest vintages, content to remain a “very pleasant Pomerol” rather than a “knock ’em dead Le Pin.” It is at its peak now and is best drunk over the next decade.