Description

The Grand Vin from Chateau Nenin has been improving slowly over time as they learn the terroirs and their strengths and weaknesses. In 2020 Chateau Nenin came off just 8 of their 32 hectares. All the critics are suggesting this is the best showing of Nenin and is a wine to drink from 2027 but will still be appealing on its 30th Birthday.

Chateau Nenin Pomerol 2020 is sold En-Primeur. You order and pay now, to receive the En-Primeur pricing. You will receive the wine in mid-late 2023.

Chateau Nenin is owned by the Delon family, who also owns Leoville Las Cases and Potensac. Nenin is large for a Pomerol vineyard at 32 hectares. The Delon family made a lot of upgrades and changes, including increasing the Merlot to 78% of the vineyard area, the Cabernet Franc to 21% and taking Cabernet Sauvignon down to 1% (from 20%!).

Nenin employs Michel Rolland as the wine consultant. The wine style is structured and powerful; the velvet comes with time in the bottle.

Chateau Nenin Pomerol 2020 Wine Review

Wine Cellar Insider
94 points
“Deeply colored, you find touches of cedar, flowers, licorice, herbs and dark plums on the nose. Bright, fresh, sweet and crisp, with a zesty, savory, dark red berry mid-palate and long, chewy, spicy finish, this needs some time to soften and develop. Give it 5-7 years in the cellar and enjoy over the next 2 decades. The wine blends 68% Merlot and 32% Cabernet Franc.”

Bordeaux

Situated near the Atlantic coast of France. The Gironde, Dordogne and Garonne rivers provide its shape. Cool conditions and frequent rainfall, including during harvest time, make Bordeaux quite a marginal region with vintages frequently ruined by rain or saved from the rain at the last minute by timely sunshine.

Pomerol 

Merlot dominates here ably supported by Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon, a distant (and sometimes non-existent) third. There is only 800 hectare of vines and almost 150 producers, and Pomerol is the only major appellation of Bordeaux to eschew a ranking system.  The quality at the top level is arguably better than any other Bordeaux, but it can vary.

Merlot

It gets a tough time most of the places it is grown. But in Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, Merlot not only dominates but makes some of the best wines in the world. Perfume, silky and plush. Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon season the wines with structure and acid, but in some places, like Petrus, they are almost not needed.

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is actually one of the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon… along with Sauvignon Blanc (oh! The name makes sense now!).  It is most famous for being the third most important grape in quality Bordeaux. But also excels in the Loire Valley (where it lived before it went to Bordeaux), especially Chinon and Saumur. The wines are bright red in colour, highly aromatic with raspberries, rose petals, violets along with tobacco, cassis and some herbal elements. The best examples can live as long as any great wine.

French Wine

The land that so many New World (not European) wine producers look to emulate. To generalise about French wine, I would say it is savoury, lighter-bodied wines. They are the definition of elegant, complex. There are many styles, though. And there is a French wine for every palate. They lead the world in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Burgundy. Sparkling Wine in Champagne. Cabernet and Merlot in Bordeaux. Syrah(Shiraz) and Grenache in the Rhone Valley. Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris in Alsace. Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley. Gamay in Beaujolais.

Wine

Wine is the result you get from fermented grape juice. There is proof of wine production dating back 8000 years ago. Fashions, innovations and many other factors have influenced the way wine has evolved over the years.

The wine grape is pretty special. It contains everything you need to make grape wine except for the yeast, which lives on the outside of the skins.

Human inputs can influence the final product. This includes the viticulture (growing) choices. And the winemaker can shape the wine to a point too.

The best wines of the world often refer to terroir. This is a French term that refers to all the climatic, geological and topographical influences on a specific piece of land. And it is true that neighbouring vineyards, grown identically, can taste noticeably different.

Red Wine

Fun fact; most of the colour for wines comes from the skins. There are only a handful of grapes that have red juice. Alicante is the most well known of these grapes.

By macerating the juice on the skins, the wine gains tannins, and flavours. Certain compounds change the chemistry of the wine too.

Red wines tend to have higher alcohol. More tannin and more oak flavours compared to other styles of wine. But the thousands of grapes and terroirs they grow in influence this.

The Wine Depository

I, Phil, have been running The Wine Depository since 2011. The Wine Depository exists to make sure you are drinking the good wines. You can browse and pick what is interesting to you. Or you can make contact with me. I’ll make sure you get what you want, to your palate, to your budget and to your door.