This is really pure and primary with very clean and bright aromas of crushed grapes. Minerally and floral with brightness and vividness. Just a hint of smoke and meat. Medium-bodied with a tight and poised center palate and a racy finish. Structured in a classic, great Bordeaux way. Needs five or six years to come together and soften, but this is seamless and wonderful. Drink after 2030 and beyond.

(JL 94-96 points) Cinnamon, flowers, licorice, roses, plums, and cherries with espresso, black raspberries, and fresh, leafy herbs create the array of notes in the perfume. On the palate, the wine is fresh, bright, soft, polished, elegant, and refined. The tannins are silky, and the fruits are pure and vibrant, with a crisp, almost crunchy quality to the sweet cherries, cocoa, and orange rind in the finish. The wine was produced from 100% Merlot, 13.4% ABV. The harvest took place September 25 - October 4. Yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2025 - 2045.

(96+ points) Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2021 Le Pin needs a few swirls to release evocative scents of juicy black and red plums, black cherries, and black raspberries, giving way to fragrant scents of red roses, cinnamon stick, black truffles, and underbrush, with a touch of cardamom. The medium-bodied palate is filled with vibrant black berry layers and red berry sparks, framed by gorgeous, ripe, rounded tannins and amazing freshness, finishing long and perfumed. This wine is a breathtaking achievement, considering the challenges of this vintage. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2021 Le Pin needs a few swirls to release evocative scents of juicy black and red plums, black cherries, and black raspberries, giving way to fragrant scents of red roses, cinnamon stick, black truffles, and underbrush, with a touch of cardamom. The medium-bodied palate is filled with vibrant black berry layers and red berry sparks, framed by gorgeous, ripe, rounded tannins and amazing freshness, finishing long and perfumed. This wine is a breathtaking achievement, considering the challenges of this vintage. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

The 2021 Le Pin has turned out beautifully. Élevage has done wonders in building texture. Dark, pliant and super-expressive, the 2021 is fabulous right out of the gate. Bright acids resonate on the striking finish. Black cherry, plum, leather, spice, graphite and jasmine lend an exotic flair. Time in the glass releases the aromatics. The 2021 is a gorgeous wine. -- Antonio Galloni

The 2021 Le Pin has turned out beautifully in bottle, bursting with aromas of raspberries and blackberries mingled with notions of pencil shavings, spices, black truffle and licorice, framed by a discreet touch of new oak (only 55% new this year). Medium to full-bodied, ample and enveloping, it's suave and sensual, with a fleshy core of fruit and beautifully refined tannins and concludes with a long, rose-inflected finish. Le Pin, after all, is an early-ripening, well-drained terroir, so it's hardly surprising that it should perform especially well in a vintage like 2021. - William Kelley

Red cherries and strawberries alongside roses, peonies and smoked earth on the nose. Immediately so smooth, silky in the mouth with bright and searing strawberry and red cherry flavours. A delicate style on show, less plush and plump, more finessed and defined. Minerality shows through clearly with the high-toned fruit framed by just-robust tannins at this point giving a firmness to the overall structure. It has freshness and a sense of underlying power with a menthol backbone and touches of liquorice and black pepper. Long flavour and an appealing chalky finish.

Jewel-ruby colour, this has layers of nuanced black fruits and campfire smoke on the nose. One of the more delicate renditions of Le Pin after a number of years of powerful seduction, this is vivid and juicy, heading towards brambled raspberry fruits, with finely-spun tannins and a twist of liquorice bud and grilled earth. The deep gravels of Le Pin (among the deepest of Pomerol, up to 6m) were able to ripen earlier than most areas, and this still delivers an arresting wine, with nuance, hidden power, and beauty. But it may not still the conversation in a room the way that the best vintages of this remarkable wine can do. 75% new oak. Diana Berrouet arrived in January 2022 (from Ch Petit Village) to Le Pin for the blending of this vintage, working with viticulturalist and consulting winemaker Guillaume Thienpont. 35hl/h yield, harvest November 25 to October 4. No frost impact, no mildew either. They made no 2013 and no 2003 here, so if they are making it, it's a good sign that they are happy with it.

The 2021 Château Le Pin is the same 100% Merlot, and it was raised in slightly less new oak, spending 18 months in 65% new oak (Seguin Moreaux and Taransaud). It has a deep ruby hue as well and brilliant notes of ripe black cherries, blackberries, candied violets, spice, and kirsch. It's textured, medium to full-bodied, has fine tannins, and a lively spine of acidity and salinity on the finish. It's a gorgeous 2021 to enjoy over the coming two decades.