A dense ruby-colored Le Pin, the 1995 offers up aromas of lead pencil, roasted nuts, smoke, spice, fruitcake, and black cherries intermixed with white chocolate. Luscious and full-bodied, with low acidity, but plenty of grip and tannin in the finish, this wine, with its abundant cola, kirsch, and black raspberry flavors, is revealing far more structure since bottling than it did in cask. It appears to be every bit as structured and tannic as the 1996. The 1995 Le Pin will take a few years to come around. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2018.

Some of the hard tannins this wine possessed early in life have sloughed off to reveal a wine that has a stunning nose of roasted herbs, caramel, smoke, barbecue notes along with fruitcake, blackberry, and black cherry jam, and a bit of white chocolate also entering the smorgasbord of scents. Full-bodied, with low acidity but still moderately high tannin, still a tightly knit, very concentrated wine that is surprisingly structured and backward for Le Pin. It is also a bit more massive than most vintages. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2025. Last tasted, 5/02.