1981 & 1992 Le Pin
BY NEAL MARTIN |
Le Pin’s superstar status means that one can easily forget that this Pomerol was no overnight success and took several years to achieve renown. It was down to Jacques Thienpont’s perseverance and a little nudge from Robert Parker. It’s almost comical how cheap Thienpont sold his first vintages. I remember his anecdote, how he left a case with a Bordeaux merchant to assess in the hope of securing a sale, returning a year later to spot that same case unopened and gathering dust. Times have changed. Le Pin is a rare and expensive wine, and nowadays, it is almost impossible to find vintages from the early 1980s, partly because the tiny vineyard was even smaller, producing little more than 200 cases per annum from Thienpont’s original acquisition from Mme Loubie in 1979. (Those with copies of my Pomerol tome can see how Le Pin expanded incrementally over the following years.)
Subscriber Access Only
or Sign Up
I have been fortunate to taste every vintage, though it is over a decade since I encountered one of the early ones. Visiting the estate in December, Thienpont served a bottle blind, a bottle that drew gasps from the audience…even from his better half.
