Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Amazing complexity and beauty with plums, tangerines and walnuts. Full body and extremely silky textured tannins with gorgeous balanced and beauty. Goes on for minutes. Superb wine. Best Nenin since the 1950s.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Nenin is a blend of 82% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple colored, it charges out of the gate with bold Black Forest cake, plum preserves and licorice scents followed by Chinese five spice and potpourri nuances with a waft of fallen leaves. Full-bodied, the palate has great richness and depth with firm, velvety tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and savory.
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Wine Enthusiast
A wine that is deliciously perfumed from the 25% Cabernet Franc in the blend. The wine has very ripe black fruits, with contrasting intense acidity, toast and dark chocolate. It's powerful and concentrated, with good aging potential.
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Wine Spectator
This is deliciously plump, with blackberry and plum fruit at the core, studded with lightly toasted spice and framed with a roasted vanilla bean note. A lingering cocoa edge chimes in on the finish. Best from 2014 through 2023. Tasted twice, with consistent notes
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Decanter
Very good, yet clear and clean blackcurrant fruit. Nice touch of iron on the palate. Plump, rounded, fleshy and succulent, but it avoids heaviness thanks to the lively acidity. Ripe tannins give structure and there’s a distinct earthiness that is actually quite appealing.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
A source of exceptionally sensual and glamorous red wines, Pomerol is actually a rather small appellation in an unassuming countryside. It sits on a plateau immediately northeast of the city of Libourne on the right bank of the Dordogne River. Pomerol and St-Émilion are the stars of what is referred to as Right Bank Bordeaux: Merlot-dominant red blends completed by various amounts of Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. While Pomerol has no official classification system, its best wines are some of the world’s most sought after.
Historically Pomerol attached itself to the larger and more picturesque neighboring region of St-Émilion until the late 1800s when discerning French consumers began to recognize the quality and distinction of Pomerol on its own. Its popularity spread to northern Europe in the early 1900s.
After some notable vintages of the 1940s, the Pomerol producer, Petrus, began to achieve great international attention and brought widespread recognition to the appellation. Its subsequent distribution by the successful Libourne merchant, Jean-Pierre Mouiex, magnified Pomerol's fame after the Second World War.
Perfect for Merlot, the soils of Pomerol—clay on top of well-drained subsoil—help to create wines capable of displaying an unprecedented concentration of color and flavor.
The best Pomerol wines will be intensely hued, with qualities of fresh wild berries, dried fig or concentrated black plum preserves. Aromas may be of forest floor, sifted cocoa powder, anise, exotic spice or toasted sugar and will have a silky, smooth but intense texture.