Vieux Château Certan 2018

The 2018 Vieux Château Certan is composed of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, weighing in with 14.4% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 77. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the nose is locked down tight at this youthful stage, requiring a lot of patient swirling to release a profound powerhouse of a perfume: preserved plums, blueberry compote, ripe black cherries and boysenberries, leading to suggestions of Indian spices, lilacs, espresso and licorice, plus a waft of sandalwood. The medium to full-bodied palate has an amazing sense of cohesiveness. There are no edges to the seamless flow of exquisitely fine-grained tannins and perfectly knit acidity, beautifully framing the blue and black fruits, which are at once elegant and also so, so rich. It finishes with many slowly lapping waves of minerals and exotic spices, which just go on and on. It is a wine that is, simply put, an experience not to be missed. Give it a good 6-8 years in the cellar and drink it over the next 30 years or more. 2027 - 2057

The 2018 Vieux Château Certan is deeply impressive. It possesses one of the most intense aromatics that I can remember on a nascent VCC, bursting from the glass with intense black cherries, cassis and violets that are even more pronounced than when I first tasted this from barrel. The palate is exuberant, racing out of the blocks with precocious, intense black fruit wrapped up with a silky texture that makes it deceptively easy to drink. You would not pick this out as the subtlest VCC; instead, it is a long-term proposition, a comparatively opulent wine that may ultimately be feted as one of the appellation’s finest wines. Chapeau, Alexandre et Guillaume Thienpont! 2025 - 2055

Blackberry and hints of plum with intense wet-earth and black-olive undertones. Bark and some iodine. Full-bodied with superb depth of fruit and structure. The palate is so broad with super tannins. This is a powerful and very structured VCC with fantastic depth and muscle. Down-to-earth style. You can taste the soil. 70% merlot and 30% cabernet franc. One for long cellar aging. Old-vine character. Try after 2027.

The flagship 2018 Vieux Château Certan is based on 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc and was brought up in (I suspect) roughly 50% new French oak. It tips the scale at 14.5% natural alcohol, which is the same as the 2010 (slightly higher than the 2009) and has a pH of 3.78, which is also very close to the 2010. This rock star of a Pomerol offers a kaleidoscopic array of red, black, and blue fruits, white truffle, spring flowers, tobacco, and crushed rock-like minerality on the nose. It has perfectly integrated oak, gorgeous concentration, building yet ultra-fine tannins, and not a hard edge to be found. I was able to follow this bottle for multiple days, and the large Cabernet Franc component became more and dominant, yet it never truly shut down and was always a joy to drink. Nevertheless, a good 7-8 years of bottle age are warranted, and it should evolve for 30-40 years in cold cellars. Again, the Thienpont family produces a heavenly wine that wine lovers should all have in their cellar. Along with Petrus, Conseillante, Lafleur, and a handful of others, it's one of the appellation's most singular wines.

Tasted blind at Southwold 2018. Deep ruby purple colour. Bursting with character on the nose, there are layers of cherry blossom, sweet plums, spices and chocolate. This follows on the palate, the array of flavours in harmony is spectacular. Intense and hedonistic yet in perfect harmony, there are flecks of fresh flowers and savoury spices to rein in the more boisterous fruit tones. Seamless structure is ripe and ever-present but perfectly managed. The finish is very long, retaining the precision evident throughout. A stunning 2018.

This is complex, precise and concentrated but tempered with stunning potential. There is so much flavour and juice here with crushed tobacco and liquorice root alongside richly textured raspberry and blueberry fruits - all extremely well balanced and yet reaching down into the depths promising great ageing.

A VCC that is full of layers, with the beauty of this vintage making them all relatively discernible even at this early stage because the tannins are not balled together but allow the light in between.

An excellent year for Cabernet Franc, which always favours this estate - owner Alexandre Thienpont said that they weren’t just useful but essential this year, giving freshness and focus to the hedonism of the Merlots, and dampening down the alcohols. No press wine in the blend as yet, and not sure if they will use it. A yield of 40hl/ha.
98-100 points.


Drinking Window 2027 - 2044

Tasted blind. Intense nose. Sweet start but fragrant. Lots of alcohol on the end but some subtlety in the middle. Real concentration. And quite a bit of fine, dry tannin on the very end. 14.5%
Drink 2027 – 2045

70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, 40 hl/ha. pH 3.78. Barrel sample.
Darkest cherry red. Dark fruited and quite mineral on the nose, but fragrant with that dark, subtle fruit. Lively and with a dash of herbs for complexity. At the moment this is rather sober on the palate. That Cabernet freshness is there and bringing great finesse to the tannins. Opens up to more dark and subtle fragrance. Really refined and beautifully dry and elegant. Very long, very tender in texture even if there's a charge of tannins hiding underneath. There is a subtle beauty. I need half an hour with this wine not five minutes because it unfurls on the palate. This is already a great wine but it is going to be a very great wine. Alexandre Thienpont describes it as cashmere but I think of it as the finest of cotton sheets, ironed smooth, with very high thread count. (JH) 14.4%
Drink 2028-2048

Vivid purple colour in the glass with an expressive and expansive nose of violets, cherries and plums. The aromas are cool, flinty, somehow both sweet and savoury, and very enticing. The palate is creamy with vanilla, toast and pure cassis. This has real sophistication due to the cool ripeness of fruit and reginement of tannin that gives a cahmere texture and superb poise. Despite the elegance there is great intensity, giving an almost ethereal weightless power on the finish. Effortlessly impressive and very pure. Certianly a contender for wine of the vintage, in a style that sets it apart.

(70 Merlot, 30 Cabernet Franc) | 70% new oak and 30% one-year-old oak | 14.4% alc (the Merlot was 15% and the Cabernet Franc was 13.5%) | 40 hl/ha | 77 IPT In spite of the tropical spring and dry summer they were not affected by mildew at VCC. Alexandre and his son Guillaume Thienpont anticipated the rhythm of the downy mildew and tackled it perfectly. They had the same sort of attack in 2000 and they survived this, too. The summer was not excessively warm at VCC and they had cool nights which is superb for Cabernet Franc and this offset the power and intensity of the Merlot. ‘Cashmere’ was Alexandre’s expression for the texture of his wine and this is better than any word I can come up with, so it will do. Unlike many of the other Pomerols, this wine leads with red fruit. The oldest vines in this wine were planted in 1932 and this goes some way to explaining the superb intensity on display. It is said that you cannot smell texture, but this wine smells incredibly silky. The nose shows exquisite complexity and on the palate there is considerable volume and length. The finish is crisp, tart and dry and it pinches the palate and this further alerts the senses. The layers of red fruit are positively kaleidoscopic flavours and with the never-ending finish the overall feeling is of a densely flavoured wine but one with a medium-bodied framework and this sleight of hand is thrilling. I wish I could have tasted this wine every day such was its appeal. It is yet another ridiculously brilliant wine from this magnificent estate.