VIEUX CHATEAU CERTAN 2022

Description

Yves Beck 98-100 points www.yvesbeck.wine
75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
Très belle expression olfactive dans Vieux Château Certan avec de la fraîcheur qui se manifeste au travers de menthe et de framboises suivies de nuances florales avec de la camomille et de la glycine. En attaque le vin se positionne avec douceur. Il est crémeux, friand et doté de tannins suaves et puissants. Dotés d’un grain fin, les tannins soutiennent idéalement l’expression aromatique du milieu et de la fin de bouche. Ils confèrent également une fine amertume à la finale qui s’en retrouve non seulement amplifiée mais étirée. Elle révèle des nuances de réglisse et une touche florale. La boucle est bouclée et ce VCC est très complet, digeste, gourmand et puissant !  2029-2060  

Jeb Dunnuck 98-100 points www.jebdunnuck.com
One of the wines of the vintage, without a doubt, the 2022 Vieux Château Certan comes from healthy yields of 38 hectoliters per hectare and is 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Jaw-droppingly good in every sense, its deep purple hue is followed by a massive array of black cherries, violets, red plums, chocolate, and violets. This carries to a full-bodied Pomerol with a voluptuously layered mouthfeel, perfect tannins, and a great, great finish. I never find Vieux Château Certan to have the overt power and structure of Petrus, or the feminine elegance of Conseillante, but it’s unrivaled in its texture, seamlessness, and purity. If this doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will. And I’ll be a buyer.

Georgina Hindle 98 points  www.decanter.com 
Great expressiveness on the nose; perfumed blackcurrants, black cherries, strawberries, notes of dark chocolate, graphite and liquorice – smells serious. Supple and taught on the palate but with a really juicy core that gives life and energy. Tannins are excellent, giving weight and texture – a combination of chewy and fleshy but with a crushed stone and spiced edge. Lively, bright, intense, concentrated and suave. It’s rich, broad, muscular, complex and nuanced but at the same time stylish with lots of life, balance and freshness. This leaves the most gorgeous lingering expression and a sense that it’s going to be both extremely accessible in its youth and have great ageing potential. 3.78pH. A yield of 35hl/ha.

William Kelley 97-99 points www.erobertparker.com
A blend of 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon (very similar to the 2019), the 2022 Vieux Château Certan is a magical wine of exemplary harmony and balance. Offering up complex aromas of dark berries and cherries mingled with notions of exotic spices, licorice, iris, violets and loamy soil, it’s full-bodied, supple and seamless, its sweet structuring tannins entirely concealed by a multidimensional core of pure, vibrant fruit. This sensual, perfumed Pomerol is likely to rank alongside the 2019 and 2016 in the pantheon of recent Vieux Château Certan vintages.

Neal Martin 97-99 www.vinous.com
The 2022 Vieux Château Certan was picked between 6 and 21 September at 35hL/ha and matured in two-thirds new oak. Alexandre Thienpont thinks it is a combination of the 2019 and 2020 and said that the Cabernet Sauvignon, from younger vines, lowered the alcohol (14.4%) and lent perfume. The aromatics are spellbinding with brilliant delineation and a surfeit of freshness. Blackberry, briary, crushed stone and light iris flower scents, vivacious and so energetic. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, very supple tannins, and lashings of cracked black pepper, pencil box and tobacco infusing the black fruit. As Thienpont said, persistent on the finish and gently lacquering the vines. The Cabernet is very expressive this year and so while it is a real Left Bank/Right Bank hybrid, it is, at the same time, quintessentially Pomerol. Chapeau Alexandre et Guillaume Thienpont.

Jean-Marc Quarin 96 points www.quarin.com
Couleur sombre, intense et pourpre. Nez intense, fruité, mûr et frais. Légère note d’herbe sèche. Moelleux à l’attaque, très fruité et savoureux au développement, velouté en milieu de bouche avec encore cette petite note d’herbe sèche sous le gras, le vin s’achève long, savoureux et aromatique tout en restant charnu. Assemblage : 85 % merlot, 14 % cabernet franc, 1 % cabernet sauvignon. Degré d’alcool : 14°5 (moyenne plus), pH : 3.77 (moyenne plus). IPT : 83 (élevé). Rendement : 40 hl/ha. Sélection : 75 % de premier vin.

Antonio Galloni 98-100 www.vinous.com
The 2022 Vieux Château Certan was picked between 6 and 21 September at 35hL/ha and matured in two-thirds new oak. Alexandre Thienpont thinks it is a combination of the 2019 and 2020 and said that the Cabernet Sauvignon, from younger vines, lowered the alcohol (14.4%) and lent perfume. The aromatics are spellbinding with brilliant delineation and a surfeit of freshness. Blackberry, briary, crushed stone and light iris flower scents, vivacious and so energetic. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, very supple tannins, and lashings of cracked black pepper, pencil box and tobacco infusing the black fruit. As Thienpont said, persistent on the finish and gently lacquering the vines. The Cabernet is very expressive this year and so while it is a real Left Bank/Right Bank hybrid, it is, at the same time, quintessentially Pomerol. Chapeau Alexandre et Guillaume Thienpont.