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Winery co-owner Arjen Pen achieved every winemaker’s dream when the very first vintage of his Left Bank Bordeaux stole the show in a lineup featuring the world’s finest Merlots. Up against icons such as Petrus, Masseto, Angélus, and Le Macchiole’s Messorio, Pen tells Robb Report that his Marpaout 2022 “comfortably held its own alongside these exceptional bottles.” A private client event in May 2025 hosted by MMI, part of the Emirates Group in Dubai (which is the leading distributor of alcohol in the UAE), a group of leading fine-wine collectors gathered for a paid tasting of some of the best Merlots in the world. Marpaout rapidly gained a following and immediately sold out the entire allocation for the region.

Made from a single plot of Merlot in the estate vineyards of Château Branas Grand Poujeaux, Marpaout’s ascendancy is no accident. Home to some of the first vineyards planted in this area of the Medoc, Branas Grand Poujeaux’s 61 acres are divided into 25 parcels, which Pen explains are fermented “separately in 25 individual vats in order to capture the identity of each terroir.” With vineyards located on the Medoc’s well-known Terrace No. 3, home to alluvial gravel soils with excellent drainage capability, the blocks offer a variety of subsoils and exposures. “On a map, our vineyard distribution resembles that of a Burgundy producer, with many small parcels scattered across the Moulis appellation,” Pen explains.

A self-trained winemaker who says he “learned everything by observing other talented winemakers and oenologists, relying on my own intuition, developing my skill set, and experimenting,” Pen currently works alongside Hubert de Boüard, owner of Château Angelus, who has been making wine at Branas since 2012. “Before the harvest, Hubert walks every block with me, and together we decide on the optimal picking window, taking lab analyses into account,” Pen says. “In the Marpaout block, he remarked that this Merlot was ‘from another planet.’” While de Boüard hyped the quality of the Marpaout plot year after year, it wasn’t until 2022 that Pen and business partner Hindrik Gommer decided to keep four barrels from four different coopers separate and produce a single-vineyard wine. After 12 months of aging, they showed a sample to two wine journalists “who reaffirmed the magic of this plot,” Pen says.

Once the wine was bottled, things snowballed rather quickly. Having left a career in aviation to focus on wine full time, Pen remains well connected in that world, which is how the MMI/Emirates event came about. Dubai resident and wine collector Mark Walpole was present at the tasting, which he attended to try this new wine alongside the likes of Angelus and Petrus. A regular purchaser of Angelus and Mouton Rothschild, he added eight bottles of Marpaout to his Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Piedmont–heavy collection. Pen believes the real breakthrough came through when Xavier Thuizat, former head sommelier of Le Crillon in Paris, added Marpaout to the list at the restaurant.

“What struck me most about this wine, besides its complex and delicate nose, was its dazzling texture on the palate,” Thuizat says. “Velvety, silky, and incredibly delicate, yet still revealing remarkable density. An iron fist in a velvet glove. That’s Marpaout.” He recommends pairing it with an elegant dish such as lamb shoulder confit with thyme and rosemary.

Thuizat was not the only high-profile sommelier to jump onboard. Bernard Neveu, wine director for Alain Ducasse, requested an allocation for his two Michelin three-star restaurants in Monte Carlo and London. Closer to home, Michelin-starred restaurants Logis de la Cadène in Saint-Émilion and Le Gabriel in Bordeaux were early clients. And the 67 Pall Mall wine clubs in Singapore and London also carried the label. Also in London, luxury wine and spirits boutique Hedonism offers Marpaout 2022 for £1,560 ($2,082), and although the international tariff situation has delayed the arrival of the 200 bottles Pen set aside for the United States on our shores, he says he is able to ship directly to private customers throughout the country.

“The wine comes from an exceptional vineyard plot in the Médoc, with a soil composition that in many ways resembles Pomerol more than the classic terroirs of the Left Bank,” explains Bas van Middendorp, general manager of Dutch wine retailer Best of Wines. “That distinctive character is immediately evident in the glass. The structure is elegant and perfectly balanced, while the long, aromatic finish lingers beautifully.” van Middendorp says his clients who buy Marpaout also purchase the likes of Masseto, Hundred Acre, and Château Mouton Rothschild from him, and that many are collectors of wines such as Romanée-Conti, Le Pin, and Pétrus.

From a four-acre site on the highest elevation in Moulis, Marpaout 2022 offers a nose of black cherry with pronounced salinity. It is spicy at first sip and has flavors of blackberry, blueberry, clove, and saddle leather wrapped in a sheath of feathery tannins and shot through with brilliant acidity. Only 900 standard bottles and 50 magnums were made, and the next available vintage will be 2025, which will not be released until at least 2028. This truly rare wine is one that Merlot aficionados won’t want to miss.

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