FRANCE/UNITED KINGDOM : TINY FAMILY RUN VINEYARD IN BORDEAUX, PRODUCES LE PIN AS EXPENSIVE A WINE AS SOME CHAMPAGNES , AS WINE CONNOISSEURS PAY LARGE SUMS AT AUCTIONS

Record ID: 337858

  • Title: FRANCE/UNITED KINGDOM : TINY FAMILY RUN VINEYARD IN BORDEAUX, PRODUCES LE PIN AS EXPENSIVE A WINE AS SOME CHAMPAGNES , AS WINE CONNOISSEURS PAY LARGE SUMS AT AUCTIONS
  • Date: 9th October 1995
  • Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BORDEAUX, FRANCE / LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT) C. RTV - ACCESS ALL BORDEAUX, FRANCE 1. COUNTRYSIDE AROUND ST EMILION 2. VINEYARD LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM 3. SOTHEBYS AUCTION HOUSE 4. AUCTIONEER 5. GARY BOOM SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) 6. LE PIN BOTTLES 7. GARY BOOM SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) 8. THE WINE ADVOCATE BOOK BY ROBERT PARKER 9. SOTHEBYS 10. GARY BOOM SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) BORDEAUX, FRANCE 11. LE PIN FARMHOUSE 12. VINES 13. VIEUX CHATEAU CERTAN, POMERAL WINE 14. ALBERT TEILLET WALKING ALONG THE VINES 15. TEILLET SPEAKING AS NOTED (FRENCH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) 16. ALEXANDRE THIENPONT WALKING ALONGSIDE VATS 17. ALEXANDRE SPEAKING AS NOTED (FRENCH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 24th October 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BORDEAUX, FRANCE / LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVACIEE5XF6KRPNA4SFKR9JHVH2F
  • Story Text: - INTRO: Champagne and Chateau Lafite are known the world over as among the most expensive wines but a tiny family-run vineyard in France's Bordeaux region also produces a world-beater - albeit in rather smaller quantities. Reuters Television's Keith Hayes reports: In the Bordeaux region of France, wine is a way of life. Stone houses, rolling hills and lush vines; these idyllic scenes have wooed poets and artists for centuries.

    But the wine business has a hard edge - after all, the sums of money involved are deadly serious.

    In auction houses such as London's Sotheby's, wine lovers fork out huge sums of money to buy their favourite vintage - and now there's a new star on the market: Le Pin.

    Gary Boom, a London wine connoisseur, explains: "You have to remember there's only 350 cases to go round the world. There are a lot of awfully rich people who would like to get their hands on this wine. The wine tends to go to the same people every year and in order to get their hands on the wine they have to pay up." Earlier this year in New York, a buyer paid over $35,000 for a case of 12 bottles of 1982 vintage.

    "'82 was superb. You had the rains in the beginning so the budding on the vines was very early. This continued with very warm weather, the warmest since 1945,with consistent temperature. Then rains just before September, in order to bring the vines up to full sweetness, then no rains whatsoever so it really was ideal. You couldn't describe better conditions if you tried. '82s are a great vintage," says Boom.

    It was the insider's guide to wine - The Wine Advocate - written by Robert Parker, that generated the hype that surrounds Le Pin. When Parker touted the Pomeral wine over ten years ago as one of the best wines, collectors went wild and prices shot up.

    "Parker started off rating the '82 at 93 points, then re-rated at 95, then 98 and finally to 100 and he's only ever rated 65 wines, out of all wines ever tasted, at 100 points. So when you consider there are only 200 bottles left inthe world there are a lot of millionaires out there who would like to get their hands on it and the price just went completely crazy," said Boom.

    While high rollers scramble to get their hands on Le Pin, it starts in a quiet little village in Bordeaux where this highly sought-after wine is produced on barely five acres. It belongs to the Thienpont family who live nearby.

    Le Pin is worked by just one man - Albert Teillet - who tends the vines in the evenings and on weekends. He takes the wine's new-found fame in his stride.

    "It's true I like it but it's not the only one I like," he says.

    Alexandre Thienpont manages the vineyard for the owner, his cousin Jacques. he thinks he can identify Le Pin's distinctive qualities.

    "If you tried 15 bottles blindfolded you could tell Le Pin very easily because Le Pin has a very unique aroma of citrus fruits. In general, it has a taste somewhere between peach and pineapple." This is last year's stock, some 6,000 bottles which are sold for between 50 and 67 dollars at the vineyard. This year's harvest is expected to yield about the same.

    Not far from Le Pin, is the renowned wine town of Saint Emilion.

    Here in this wine shop, a short distance from the vineyard, a bottle of Le Pin has already begun to increase in value. Here, it sells for 2,890 francs - a little under US$600.

    "It's supply and demand. If people want to pay that kind of price you can say it is worth it. It's always relative to supply and demand," explains the shop owner.

    As the sun sets over the vines at Le Pin, the hustle and bustle of the major auction houses seems a universe away But its there that these grapes of gold will come of age.


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