Château Le Pin, or simply Le Pin, is a

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the b ...

from the

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

Pomerol Pomerol (; oc, Pomairòus) is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine near Bordeaux in southwestern France. Wine With only . Pomerol is the smallest wine producing area in the Bordeaux region. It is more a community where th ...

. The unusually small estate is located on the Right Bank of France's

Gironde estuary The Gironde estuary ( , US usually ; french: estuaire de la Gironde, ; oc, estuari de aGironda, ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Ga ...

in the commune of

in the hamlet of Catusseau, and its wine is frequently one of the world's most expensive red wines.

History

Madame Laubie, whose family had owned the plot since 1924 sold the one hectare

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vine ...

in 1979 to the Belgian Jacques Thienpont for 1 million francs. The vineyards were developed by Jacques Thienpont whose family own the neighbouring Vieux Château Certan, and the wine was produced in tiny quantities from a farmhouse basement. The property was already called ''Le Pin'' from a solitary pine tree that grows near the

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

. Today the estate comprises 2,7 hectares in one contiguous vineyard surrounding the winery. In 2011 a new winery, designed by the Belgian architectural practice Robbrecht en Daem architecten, was inaugurated using small microcuves and gravity to move the wine. Château Le Pin is considered by some a predecessor of the " garage wines", although this idea is rejected by many, including by the proprietors, on the basis of the merits of the ''

terroir (, ; from ''terre'', "land") is a French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat. Collectively, these contex ...

'', and the absence of extreme measures to compensate for mediocre grapes. Occasionally the most expensive wine in the world, continually receiving high

wine ratings A wine rating is a score assigned by one or more wine critics to a wine tasted as a summary of that critic's evaluation of that wine. A wine rating is therefore a subjective quality score, typically of a numerical nature, given to a specific bottl ...

from wine critics and produced in extremely small numbers, Le Pin bottles are a constant presence on the wine auction market. The winery is currently managed by Jacques Thienpont, and additional tiny plots of land have been acquired.

Production

The vineyards extend over of sandy gravel topsoil on a bedrock of limestone, with a grape variety of 100%

Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to t ...

the vines averaging 38 years of age. Typically 600 to 700 cases are produced per year, although in 2003 no wine was produced because of the drought and heatwave that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pin, Chateau Le Bordeaux wine producers