| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
The purity and complexity of fruit on the nose are really exceptional with blackberries, cloves, nutmeg and stones. Flowers, too! Full-bodied, yet bright and reserved with everything compacted in the center palate. Acidity is delicious. A superb wine. Give it time to open and show everything, but it’s so wonderful now. Try in 2022.
The 2014 L’If has a dense, sultry nose at first, touches of salted liquorice infusing the black, almost tarry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with sweet but firm tannin, a core of ripe, almost sorbet-fresh fruit, orange rind tincturing the finish. I find this actually improves in the glass, developing more sappiness with time although I would have liked more persistency on the aftertaste. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. 2020 - 2036
Tasted blind. Strange nose – savage and chewy. Almost feral. Very astringent and unfriendly for now. Stringy end.
Drink 2022-2029
Ripe and fleshy, with a broad feel to the plum sauce and steeped raspberry fruit flavors, backed by hints of ganache and smoldering tobacco. A light loamy edge on the finish marries with the vibrant fruit. Best from 2018 through 2026. 500 cases made.
The best vintage yet from Le Pin's St Emilion outpost, this has the lightness of touch that distinguishes Jacques Thienpont's winemaking. Aromatic, stylish and fine, with effortless balance, filigree tannins and a long, textured finish. A property to watch on the Right Bank.
The 2014 l'If has a pretty bouquet, quite intense with hints of licorice infusing the bright and vivid black cherry and blueberry fruit. With time, there is an intriguing melted tar scent. The palate is medium-bodied with quite firm tannin. This l'If seems to have tightened up since I tasted it from barrel, yet it retains impressive focus and energy, long and tender in the mouth with that licorice touch returning on the finish. Excellent, but give this three or four years in bottle. Drink Date 2019-2032
The Château L’If 2014, the Saint Emilion estate that Jacques Thienpont and Fiona Morrison MW bought in 2010, is a blend of 91% Merlot and 9% Cabernet Franc picked between 9 and 17 October, aged in 50% new oak and 50% one-year old. The nose offers up enticing licorice scents: detailed, vivacious and fresh with plenty of black fruit mixed with black olive. The palate is tightly wound with chalky tannin, that licorice note continuing through to the finish that is linear and crisp. This is an splendid Saint Emilion unapologetically elegant in style, one that as Jacques himself quipped, is the kind of bottle you finish. This is a very impressive Saint Emilion...in fact, comparing them side-by-side it might be just as good as Le Pin! Drink: 2017 - 2032
A full-bodied wine but showing so much in finesse and beauty. It slowly builds on the palate to give an crescendo of subtle fruit and fine tannins. Subtle undertones of oyster shell and iodine. Unique. This only has 9% cabernet franc. Rest is merlot.
90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. 50% new oak. They pulled out some vines and will leave them for four years. Now just 3 ha.
Deep crimson. Fresh and lush with great health and expression. Cool and round with toasty tannins on the end. Racy and sleek. Dense. Fresh and really getting there. 13.7%. Drink 2023-2030
This new property is owned and managed by Jacques Thienpont of Le Pin. It consists of 7 hectares of which 5 are next to Troplong Mondot. The encepagement is 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc and the name comes from the French word for a Yew tree. Jacques is expanding his forest!
