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85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Alexandre Thienpont explained how they were “saved by the rain” in September. Some vines were nevertheless affected by drought (around 8%), but these were carefully marked and discarded before picking. Further layers of sorting were carried out before the fruit reached tank, and the result is a rich wine with a gorgeous density, with no hint of raisined fruit. Sophisticated oak spice is built around elegant, luxurious fruit with a smoky, herbal lift from the Cabernet Franc. Their diligence has paid off. CP
85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Alexandre Thienpont explained how they were “saved by the rain” in September. Some vines were nevertheless affected by drought (around 8%), but these were carefully marked and discarded before picking. Further layers of sorting were carried out before the fruit reached tank, and the result is a rich wine with a gorgeous density, with no hint of raisined fruit. Sophisticated oak spice is built around elegant, luxurious fruit with a smoky, herbal lift from the Cabernet Franc. Their diligence has paid off. CP
The 2016 Vieux Château Certan is the first vintage to be entirely bottled by the estate’s own bottling machine (just in case that ever comes up in a wine quiz). Alexandre Thienpont mentioned that he assiduously left out the stressed vines, and he places this above his more hedonistic 2015. The wine takes a few minutes to open in the glass, but boy, is it worth the wait: it reveals pixelated red fruit (crushed strawberry and raspberry) and crushed stone, plus a hint of graphite emanating from the Cabernets. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, slightly chalky tannin that frames pure black and red fruit infused with graphite and almost flint-like notes. This is one of the most mineral-driven VCCs that I have encountered in over 20 years, with dizzying precision on the finish. A very intellectual Pomerol, in the realm of the profound. 2024 - 2060
The 2016 Vieux Chateau Certan is a blend of 85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon that was picked at 40.50 hectoliters per hectare, in three stages of picking: 3-7, 10-11 and 17-18 October. It has a high IPT of 82 and a pH of 3.77. It has a very refined bouquet with blackberry, briary and morello cherries that are tightly wound at first, but open gradually with aeration. The Merlot is fully in control aromatically; this is not a VCC governed by the Cabernet Franc this year, consistent with the 2016 vintage. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannin. There is plenty of dark berry fruit laced with hints of earl grey and bay leaf, a complex and cerebral Pomerol with a long, precise and (to put it banally) delicious finish. This is another outstanding wine from Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont. Drink Date 2022 - 2060
I have been fortunate to follow the 2016 Vieux Château Certan almost from the beginning, starting with a tasting of several lots from barrel in early January 2017, in which Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont showed me the wines in a sequence arranged by the year of planting of various parcels. Even then, it was clear, the 2016 had the potential to be a majestic wine. Now, from bottle, it is every bit as captivating as early tastings suggested it would be. Sweet red/purplish berry fruit, lavender, rose petal and spice infuse this exquisitely beautiful, layered Pomerol. Alexandre Thienpont adds that the harvest was saved by September rains that gave the parched vines just enough water to restore some of the balance that had been lost earlier in the season. Put simply, the 2016 VCC has it all. 2026 - 2066
The 2016 Vieux Château Certan is a wine of extraordinary beauty. Rich, seamless and voluptuous in the glass, it exudes sensuality in all of its dimensions. Tasted as a hypothetical blend, the 2016 is less expressive than the separate lots were when I tasted them a few months ago. A rush of dark cherry, inky blue/purplish fruit, crushed rocks, lavender and rose petal infuses the creamy, voluptuous finish. The 2016 manages to be dense and rich, but with no excess weight. It is quite simply a remarkable wine.
The balance and finesse to this wine are really beautiful with ultra-fine tannins and beautiful fruit. It’s full and structured yet so long and intense. It’s a wine that seduces you with every sip — already. Great selection here. Quite simply turbocharged at the end.
Guillaume Thienpont said that 2016 was a Merlot year and only his largest Cabernet Franc plot, planted on clay, worked whereas the other two on gravel didn’t perform and so the fruit went into his second wine. He reported that 25mm rain fell on the 13th September and also that it was a very rare year when you actually needed water before harvest as opposed to the other way around! He also explained that some of the young vine Merlot fell into ‘manageable stress’ levels and these were, once again, sorted out. Three or four days before picking they tagged every single vine with a marker to show pickers which they wanted - 5% of production was rejected straight away. This is a very powerful vintage with more muscle and strength than usual and yet there is some superb freshness and lift which helps it enormously. ‘It was easy to make a massive wine, but we had to make a balanced wine, too’, said Guillaume. The stronger notes do not only come out in the power but also in the intensity of cherry fruit making this an epic wine which is more immediately expressive and urgent than the laid-back Pétrus. It will be one of the most longest lived vintages ever. Guillaume’s father, Jacques Thienpont, said, ‘come back in fifteen years’ for another tasting of this wine at the start of its life! Jacques thought that precision is the reason for his property’s continued improvement year in year out. They have gone from selecting by plot to selecting by vine using GPS etc. The other lovely expression that I noted down during our tasting was that this wine was saved by two rains, making it ‘winemaking on a razor blade’! In order to underline just how dry it was prior to the September rain, the grapes that were set aside from the drought affected vines were so shrivelled that Jacques described them as, ‘like 2003 or ‘Cretan’ wine!’. Joking aside, this is one of the most remarkable wines that I have tasted from this property.
85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Sumptuous nose. Great lift. Real race and dancing stuff. Good structure and line. Nothing sweet or fleshy about this but lovely ripeness and nobility. Amazing persistence and elegance in claret mode. Drink 2025-2045
“A 2010 plus,” is how Guillaume Thienpoint describes this powerful, rich, dense VCC, made with slightly less Cabernet Franc than usual because of the summer heat wave. Bold, grassy and plush, with masses of underpinning tannin and satanic, dark berry fruit. 2026-40
The small sub-region of Pomerol is situated north-east of the industrious city of Libourne. Pomerol's soils are predominately iron-rich clay with a smattering of gravel that produce wines with extraordinary power and depth. As a result of this clay-dominance, it has the highest percentage of Merlot planted in all of Bordeaux. Certain châteaux are produced exclusively from this grape, but most incorporate smaller quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc as well. Despite its hefty (if not exclusive) proportion of Merlot, many people think of wines from this region as separate entities. As one wine aficionado stated recently, "It's not Merlot. It's Pomerol." Despite the region's small size, Pomerol contains some of the world's most sought after (and expensive) wines including Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur, l'Evangile and Vieux Château Certan. Unlike other Bordelais subregions, there is no system of classification. The châteaux are traded on reputation alone.
