This micro-estate has turned out two brilliant wines in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 is the typically exotic, lavishly-oaked, ostentatious style of Le Pin that drives the "status quo at all costs" traditionalists berserk. But the wine wins accolades from those without any fixed, dogmatic positions on wine. Dark ruby-colored, this spicy, ripe, medium to full-bodied wine reveals tremendous sweetness of fruit on the palate, a creamy texture, and a long, spicy, low acid, extremely smooth and silky finish. Although accessible, this wine will firm up and put on additional weight after several years in the bottle. All of the wines in this segment were tasted between March 19 and March 28 in Bordeaux. Most of the important wines from both the 1994 and 1995 vintages were tasted three separate times during my ten-day stay in Bordeaux.

This micro-estate is easy to criticize given the absurd prices the 500 or so cases fetch in the auction markets. Le Pin is one of the most exotic, concentrated, flashy wines of Bordeaux, but when it is selling at six times the price of wines such as Clinet, La Conseillante, L'Evangile, and La Fleur de Gay, readers are justified in thinking that some wine buyers have lost their sense of reality. Compared to its older sibling, the 1993, the 1994 Le Pin is a more reserved, less flamboyant and ostentatious wine. It reveals a healthy dark ruby/purple color, spicy, sweet oak, and a silky, opulent entry, but it is a more structured, concentrated, medium to full-bodied Le Pin with layers of fruit, moderate tannin, and a long, rich, jammy finish. Once again, new oak, outstanding purity, and a luscious mouthfeel account for the impressive showing of this wine in blind tastings.