I love tasting wines blind that I think I am never going to see. Especially when they preform as well as you envision. Rich, port like fruit, velvet tannins, a nose any perfume make would be proud of and a finish that hits all the right notes. Frighteningly expensive, but a thrill to sip and taste.

An explosive, virtually perfect example of Le Pin, the dense purple-colored 2000 boasts luxurious levels of extract and richness. This intense, unctuously-textured Pomerol bursting with black fruits is thick enough to drink with a spoon. It reveals abundant tannin and definition for such a young Le Pin, yet it is typical of many of the blockbuster, but backward and tannic 2000 Pomerols. It is a great wine for the multi-millionaires who are able to latch onto a few bottles. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2020.

This is a slight downgrade for this wine, but I suspect it will bounce back, as it clearly needs more time. It was more reserved than I thought it would be, as Le Pin tends to be one of the more extravagantly rich, flamboyant wines of Pomerol. The one time I tasted the 2000, it had a dense ruby/purple color, aggressive new oak, loads of coconut, vanilla, and spice box, enormous concentration and thickness, but this is an estate where I thought their subsequent year, 2001, was an even better wine. This wine displays some firm tannins in the finish and should be forgotten for another 5-6 years. So much for Le Pin not aging well. This one has at least 25 years left in it.

Distinctive, with a flash of menthol giving way to a beam of lightly mulled raspberry fruit that carries on through the finish, easily holding sway over the hints of bramble, licorice snap and warm plum compote. Just a touch sedate in feel, perhaps, but if you were a wine with this kind of fruit to burn, wouldn't you just kick back and let it groove too?--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). JM

Bright ruby. Perfumed aromas of black raspberry, cherry, violet and bitter chocolate, plus a whiff of roasted ripeness (Alexandre Theinpont told me that the mildew gave a slight dryness to the skins, which in turn was responsible for a note of torrefaction in the wine). Offers almost confectionery sweetness of cassis, raspberry and spice flavors; dense but not huge. But not quite as exotic as the superb '98, which features notes of pineapple and passion fruit. Finishes long and ripely tannic, with notes of spice and bitter chocolate. The yield was barely 30 hectoliters per hectare.

Tasted blind at Bordeaux Index’s 2000 tasting in London. This has a rather strange nose to be honest: very ripe, almost excessively so, with scents of raspberry, blackcurrant, vanilla, coca and a malty element. The palate is medium-bodied with a sweet entry, rounded tannins but rather flaccid. Showy but lacking substance, soft and lithe, with a plush rounded finish. I am unsure just how representative this bottle is, hence the question mark against my score. Tasted March 2010.