1981 &amp;
1992 Le Pin

BY NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;JANUARY 29, 2024Le
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.)

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.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1706539104057-le+pin+1981+bottle+%281%29.jpg">The 1981
Le Pin is a marvel to behold at 42 years of age, and I would argue superior
to Petrus that year, having tasted that wine just a few weeks earlier. Showing
modest signs of bricking at its rim, the bouquet is just beautiful: red fruit,
sloes, shavings of black truffle and freshly rolled tobacco. Over the course of
a couple of hours, it gains rather than loses vigor. The palate has admirable
concentration, considering that this was not a benevolent growing season, quite
full in the mouth with dark berries, tobacco, white pepper and clove. Very
cohesive and even daring to fan out towards the finish, I hazarded a guess at
the 1983 before Jacques Thienpont unveiled that it was two years earlier, his
third vintage. Sublime, though nowadays, incredibly rare. 95/Drink 2024-2040. 

Seemingly
on a whim, Thienpont whipped out another vintage just a couple of hours
earlier. The 1992 Le Pin came from a half-bottle. This has a light and
leafy nose, indicative of a cooler growing season, touches of seaweed and
autumn leaves, though cohesive and holding up well. The palate is medium-bodied,
with slightly coarse tannins, at least for Le Pin, maybe a little attenuated
towards the finish, but nevertheless, a respectable showing given that this was
a dismal year for the appellation. 86/Drink 2024-2030.© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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