Château Nénin 2000

Full-bodied and powerful, yet still tannic, structured, and backward, the 2000 Nenin shows a dark ruby/plum colour and a sweet nose of boysenberries, earth, flowers, and truffles. It needs another 4-5 years of bottle age and should keep for a further 20 years thereafter.

It shows a serious amount of subtle aromas and flavours, with tobacco, cherry and chocolate character. Full-bodied, with velvety, ripe tannins and a long, caressing finish. Yummy already. Hard to hold back. This is one of the best Nenins I have tasted in decades. Best after 2010. 2,500 cases made.

Ripe and rich wine with lots of dried fruits, dried mushrooms and cedar character. Bitter chocolate. Full and very chewy. Little short.

Deep, vibrant crimson. Very fiercely aromatic. Quite dry and uncompromising on the palate. The fruit was almost killed by the winemaking somehow? Velvety compared to stablemate Léoville Las Cases, but not charming enough in the Pomerol context for me. (JR)

A firmly structured style of Pomerol that is, for now, more exciting on the nose—truffle, cherry, thyme and floral notes—than on the still fresh, tannic and slightly stoic palate.

Deep, saturated garnet colour with bluish highlights. Dreamy, profound bouquet: lovely Merlot terroir tones, dark Cabernet Franc spice, tobacco, prunes, tar notes. Firm and dense on the palate. Not a Pomerol charmer, showing rather some Médoc character; it needs plenty of time and will only reach its finest drinking maturity in about ten years.

04: Deep, saturated garnet; bluish highlights. Dreamy, profound bouquet; a lovely Merlot terroir note and dark Cabernet Franc spice, with tobacco, prunes and tarry notes. Firm, dense on the palate. Not a Pomerol charmer, but almost highlighting a touch of Médoc character; it will need plenty of time and will only reach its most enjoyable drinking maturity in about ten years. (18/20). 15: The wine quite impressed me at a lunch at Las-Cases. The nose already shows nice maturity; the bouquet is spicy and expansive, with ripe plum tones. On the palate you can feel the typical Nenin acid structure.

Spicy, animal, powerful bouquet; tobacco, leather, smoke. Sweet, creamy, broad palate with sweet aromatics, fine, sandy tannins, long, spicy finish. 17/20 drink by 2025

Deep red colour. Good intensity. Lively. Beautiful. Nose of medium to good intensity. Fruity. Subtly toasty. Creamy. Lovely. A wine full of finesse from the attack, developing juicy and flavourful, with refined tannic support, always fresh and never heavy. It even brings energy on the mid-palate and finishes with fine-grained, particularly aromatic tannins. It's good.

With a straight, tightly knit structure, Nénin evolves slowly while retaining a lovely fruity expression and firm tannins on the finish. The whole is well-balanced and the wine remains fresh.