2009 Le Pin: The Holy Grail of Pomerol

Every collector has that one bottle — the one you whisper about, the one that defines a cellar. For Bordeaux insiders, that bottle is Le Pin.

I’ve seen a few loose bottles over the years, but a sealed original wooden case (OWC) of 2009 Le Pin? This is the first time. And likely the last.

When full cases appear, they’re usually from secondary vintages — never from a perfect-100-point modern benchmark like 2009.

The Le Pin Origin Story

Le Pin didn’t come from centuries of lineage or an aristocratic chateau. It came from one man — Jacques Thienpont, a Belgian winemaker with an eye for terroir and a taste for risk.

In 1979, Thienpont purchased a tiny 2-hectare parcel of land in Pomerol, adjacent to Château Trotanoy, for about 1 million francs — roughly the price of a nice apartment in Bordeaux. The plot was so small and unassuming that locals thought he was crazy.

But the gravel-and-clay soils sat on the same blue clay seam that made Pétrus legendary. Thienpont believed the land could produce something extraordinary — if handled with total precision.

He named the estate “Le Pin,” after a solitary pine tree that shaded the property. There was no grand chateau, no marketing, no backstory — just a humble farmhouse, a few barrels, and a dream to make something truly perfect.

A New Kind of Bordeaux

From the start, Le Pin broke every Bordeaux rule. Where the Left Bank prized size, Le Pin prized purity. Where others used industrial stainless steel, Thienpont went micro-scale, treating every tiny lot like a Burgundian cru.

He was one of the first in Bordeaux to:

• Conduct malolactic fermentation in barrel

• Build a gravity-flow cellar (no pumps, no bruising)

• Bottle in hand-selected small batches

The resulting wine has a texture so sensual and aromatic it felt more like Musigny than Merlot. Critics didn’t know what to make of it — until they tasted the 1982 vintage, which Robert Parker awarded 100 points, calling it “one of the most exotic wines ever made.”

That 1982 Le Pin sold for a few hundred dollars on release. Today, it’s $9,000 a bottle — if you can find it.

Why Collectors Chase It

Le Pin’s entire annual output hovers around 500 cases — that’s it. For comparison, Pétrus produces five to six times more.

Every bottle is handmade, the vineyard is plowed by horse, and production is so limited that the estate doesn’t even have a visitor center. You can’t just “buy” Le Pin — you need to be on a first-name basis with Thienpont’s importer or have spent decades building credibility in the trade.

It’s the purest expression of Pomerol Merlot ever made, and collectors know it. Le Pin sits in the same echelon as Lafleur, Pétrus, and L’Évangile, but carries an even deeper cult mystique because it’s smaller, rarer, and — frankly — more personal.

The 2009 Vintage — A Modern Benchmark

Robert Parker has only ever given Le Pin a perfect 100 points three times:

• 1982 — the wine that started the legend

• 2009 — “undeniably the greatest Le Pin I have tasted… made in the style of 1982”

• 2010 — another titan, though slightly more structured

The 2009 Le Pin is pure seduction: black cherry, violet, mocha, truffle, and sweet spice, all wrapped in velvet tannins. It’s the vintage that perfectly bridges the old handmade Le Pin and the new precision era — lush, opulent, and unforgettable.

Why Le Pin Matters

Le Pin isn’t just wine — it’s a movement that changed how the world thinks about Bordeaux.

It proved that small could be mighty, that Merlot could be transcendent, and that meticulous winemaking still matters more than size or prestige.

For collectors, Le Pin represents the pinnacle: the rarest wine in Bordeaux, made by hand, in microscopic quantity, with no corporate gloss — just greatness in liquid form.

Our 2009 Le Pin 3-pack OWC has been stored under ideal conditions and available exclusively through Weekend Wine — your source for rare, iconic bottles, hand-picked and rigorously inspected for provenance and perfection.