Château Le Pin

The land that became Le Pin belonged to the Loubie family from 1924, and its grapes went into undistinguished Pomerol blends until 1978. In 1979, Leon Thienpont, the father of Alexandre Thienpont, persuaded Jacques Thienpont to buy the roughly two-hectare property for one million French francs. The cellars were in poor condition, the chai was a former garden-tool shed, and the small house needed work; Alexandre Thienpont lived there for a period. The Thienpont family has worked in the wine trade since 1842, when Kamiel Thienpont founded a négociant business in Etikhove, Belgium. In 1924, the same year the Loubie family acquired the future Le Pin plot, Georges Thienpont bought the neighboring Vieux Château Certan.

• Jacques Thienpont's early investment at Le Pin was a single 50-hectoliter stainless steel vat; the debut 1979 vintage aged in used French oak barrels handed down from Vieux Château Certan
• The 1979 vintage sold for 100 French francs a bottle, less than Vieux Château Certan at the time, and buyers were still hard to find
• The vineyard grew by 0.6 hectares in 1984 with the purchase of a former vegetable garden, followed by further purchases in 1985 and 1986
• In the late 2000s Le Pin added a run of vine rows next to the existing plot; in 2012 a neighboring parcel with similar terroir went to Christian Moueix

The 2.7-hectare vineyard sits near the hamlet of Catusseau on clay, gravel, and sand soils with iron oxide deposits; the gravel runs close to three meters deep in places. Vines average around 35 years old, with some dating to the 1950s, planted at a density of about 6,000 vines per hectare. Le Pin is planted almost entirely to Merlot, effectively 100% in the finished wine; a few co-planted Cabernet Franc vines are not blended into the Grand Vin. Malolactic fermentation in barrel began by accident rather than design: in the formative years there were not enough tanks to hold all the wine, so after alcoholic fermentation it was moved to barrel as an experiment, and it worked. Starting in 2010, Jacques Thienpont built a new winery designed by the Belgian architects Robbrecht & Daem; it was completed in 2012, in time for the 2011 vintage.

• Fermentation takes place in seven small stainless-steel tanks of 15 to 42 hectoliters; all wine is moved by gravity in the cellar
• The wine ages in 100% new French oak, and blending takes place before bottling
• Jacques Thienpont declassifies any lot, or an entire vintage, that does not meet his standard; the whole 2003 crop was declassified and no Le Pin was released that year
• There is no second wine; a tiny amount of Trilogie, a blend of three different vintages made from declassified lots, is produced instead

Before the 1982 vintage, few people outside Pomerol had heard of Le Pin, and Robert Parker's initial review of the estate was lukewarm. His review of the 1982 changed that: Parker awarded it 100 points, describing it as "a flamboyant, exotic, lavishly rich, concentrated, low acid fruit bomb" with "remarkable aromatic complexity." From that point, Le Pin became the first wine of Bordeaux to sell for as much as, or more than, the First Growths, and its prices came to rival, or exceed, those of Pétrus and Lafleur. Parker and The Wine Advocate later gave perfect scores to the 2009, one of 18 wines from that vintage to reach 100 points, and the 2010, one of just 10 from its vintage. Wine Cellar Insider critic Jeff Leve rated the 2022 a perfect 100 on his own scale.

• 1982: 100 points from Robert Parker and The Wine Advocate
• 2009: 100 points from Robert Parker and The Wine Advocate, one of 18 wines from the vintage to score 100
• 2010: 100 points from Robert Parker and The Wine Advocate, one of 10 wines from the vintage to score 100
• 2022: 100 points from Wine Cellar Insider's Jeff Leve, on his independent scale
• Le Pin remains unclassified within Bordeaux's official hierarchy; its reputation rests on critical acclaim and collector demand

Le Pin varies from year to year, and hot, dry vintages can be a problem. Wine Cellar Insider names the estate's best vintages as 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2001, 2000, 1998, 1990, 1989, 1985, and 1982. The wine reaches its peak between 10 and 35 years after the vintage; young vintages can be decanted for two to three hours or more, while older bottles may need only enough time to clear the sediment.

• No Le Pin was released in 2003; the entire crop was declassified
• Best served around 15.5°C (60°F)
• Recent yields have varied by vintage: 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2021 against 20 in 2025
• The 2018 vintage marked the first time cultivated yeasts were used in fermentation at Le Pin, adopted because of that year's higher alcohol level

Alexandre Thienpont, who also manages Vieux Château Certan, oversees the Le Pin vineyard, while Jacques Thienpont makes and sells the wine. Guillaume Thienpont serves as winemaker. In December 2021, Diana Berrouet-Garcia was placed in charge of winemaking at Le Pin, having previously held the same position at Château Petit Village. In April 2010, Jacques Thienpont expanded the family's holdings with the purchase of five hectares in Saint-Émilion; the wine from that vineyard is sold under the name LIF.

• Alexandre Thienpont manages both Vieux Château Certan and the Le Pin vineyard
• Jacques Thienpont makes and sells the wine; Guillaume Thienpont is winemaker
• Diana Berrouet-Garcia has led winemaking since December 2021, after previously working at Château Petit Village
• Jacques Thienpont's Saint-Émilion property, purchased in 2010, produces wine sold under the name LIF

Le Pin holds no official classification within Bordeaux's hierarchy; its prestige rests on critical acclaim, scarcity, and collector demand. The estate takes its name from the lone pine tree near the winery. Jeff Leve calls the wine at its best "an expression of Merlot that is without equal," while cautioning that Le Pin "is not the most consistent Pomerol producer." Wine Cellar Insider advises visitors who secure a tasting at the property to swallow the wine rather than spit it.

• No official Bordeaux classification; prestige rests on scarcity and critical acclaim rather than a formal ranking
• Jacques Thienpont declassifies underperforming lots, or, as in 2003, an entire vintage
• Production is tiny: 400 to 600 cases a year
• The Loubie family's grapes went into blended, undistinguished Pomerol wine until 1978, the year before Jacques Thienpont's first Le Pin vintage

No reachable official website for Château Le Pin was found (www.le-pin.com resolves to a parked/ad-placeholder page, not the estate's own site; the Thienpont family's thienpontwine.com blocked automated access). This article is built entirely from secondary sources, fetched as raw page text via curl and tag-stripping, never a summarizing tool: The Wine Doctor (Chris Kissack), Bordeaux Profile Index, "Le Pin: The Thienpont Family," https://www.thewinedoctor.com/bordeaux/lepin_2.shtml; Wine Cellar Insider (Jeff Leve), "Le Pin Pomerol Bordeaux Wine, The Complete Guide," https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/bordeaux-wine-producer-profiles/bordeaux/pomerol/le-pin/; Wine Cellar Insider, "2009 Bordeaux Scoop! Robert Parker Gives 18 Wines 100 Pts!" (March 2012), https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/2012/03/2009-bordeaux-scoop-robert-parker-gives-18-wines-100-pts/; Wine Cellar Insider, "Robert Parker 2010 Bordeaux Scores Out. 10 Wines hit 100 Points!" (March 2013), https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/2013/03/robert-parker-2010-bordeaux-scores-out-10-wines-hit-100-points/; CultWine product listing quoting Robert Parker's Wine Advocate review of the 1982 vintage, https://cultwine.com/products/1982-chateau-le-pin; JamesSuckling.com, "Winemaker Guillaume Thienpont on 2023 Le Pin: Classic in the Making?" (April 2024), https://www.jamessuckling.com/videos/winemaker-guillaume-thienpont-2023-le-pin; The Wine Independent, "Le Pin" (August 2025), https://thewineindependent.com/articles/le-pin-3/, consulted for a name-spelling cross-check, not cited directly in article prose. Last verified 2026-10-12. See conflicts.json for a name-spelling discrepancy between sources on the current director of winemaking, and report.md for figures carried in the prior version of this article that no fetched source supports.