Le Pin Pomerol 2022 750ml

This shows purity of fruit with energy and focus. Medium-bodied, it has a precise and micro-polished palate giving refined, seamless tannins that are very silky and tensioned. Wow. Touches of iron, black pepper, hazelnuts and some finely etched wood spices and cream that will take a few years to digest. Hints of dark earth/mushrooms, citrus and black sesame as well. Long, vibrating and beautiful, with focus at the end. A more approachable young Pomerol, but it will hold beautifully for the next 20 years. Drink from 2028.

Wow, the 2022 Château Le Pin is absolutely stunning and has a heavenly perfume of black raspberries, spicy wood, flowers, incense, and camphor that develops beautifully with time in the glass. With sensational elegance, full-bodied richness, ultra-fine tannins, and flawlessly integrated oak, it's one of the 2022s that's just about impossible to resist. As always, this cuvée is 100% Merlot from a tiny parcel not far from Vieux Chateau Certan, and the 2022 was raised in 65% new French oak. While this wine is frightfully expensive and hard to find, it certainly brings the goods in 2022!

The 2022 Le Pin has a stunning bouquet, beautifully defined with black cherry, espresso and crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, refined and focused, with admirable purity of fruit and a healthy sprinkling of black pepper on the finish. Pure class. Pure Pomerol. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

Of course the 2022 from Le Pin is 100% Merlot, with élevage in 65% new oak, and 35% second-fill oak. A surprisingly exotic fruit profile on the nose here, dark berry fruits fade into the background, yielding at first to layers of yellow peach, which Guillaume Thienpont puts down to the combination of early-ripening Merlot on light gravelly clay rather than pure clay. There are nuances of dried raspberry, cigar box, even a touch of tropical fruit, as well as a lightly stemmy, savoury freshness. The palate begins with a precise intertwining of cigar box oak with fragrant and exotic fruits, showing such panache and energy, with notes of tobacco, peach, passion fruit, tropical fruits, smoke and currant, with that little wrapping of high-quality toast, underpinned by high-quality tannins, and intertwined with a fresh acid seam which only reinforces the light-footed character of the midpalate. An absolutely spine-tingling composition this year, shaking off the warmth of the year to package its exotic character in a sinewy and linear frame. Stunning, and a great example of Le Pin, although perhaps not what Le Pin is to some. The alcohol is 14.5% on the label, 14.4% on analysis.

Intense nose, full of aromatic complexity - perfumed roses, violets, irises, and sweet red fruit with iron filings and bitter orange. Thick but glossy, rich yet streamlined, layered vertically with electric freshness. Pure pleasure, hedonistic yet uplifting, seamless in its balance. Silky and bright, with a bitter pineapple tropicality, salty tang, liquorice, and cola. Ends mineral and fresh mint. Utterly seductive, capturing the heat as fruit, not spice. A 2022 with pure emotion.

The 2022 Le Pin has turned out very well, retaining impressive energy for such an early-ripening, well-draining site in so warm a year. Offering up aromas of sweet cherries, berries, licorice and violets, framed by a creamy patina of new oak, it's full-bodied, layered and exotic, with a sweet core of ripe fruit, polished tannins and a layered, seamless profile.