Vieux Château Certan - Pomerol 2022

Wine Advocate

98

byWilliam Kelleythe3/7/2025

The 2022 Vieux Château Certan is deep and harmonious, unwinding in the glass with aromas of inky blackberries and cherries mingled with scents of burning embers, truffle and lilac. Full-bodied, dense and layered, it's rich and enveloping, its concentrated core of sweet fruit framed by powdery tannins and juicy acids. Integrated, complete and precise, this blend of 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon is a brilliant vintage for Vieux Château Certan.

The Wine Cellar Insider

100

byJeff Levethe3/4/2025

Vieux Château Certan

Yvesbeck.wine

100

byYves Beckthe2/25/2025

75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon VCC affiche d'emblée de la profondeur et de la sérénité. Il est admirable dans son aptitude à se propulser vers des sphères improbables sans hausser la voix, sans éclat, mais juste avec des détails, moult informations et une incroyable largeur qui couvre autant la maturité, les épices que l'élevage et le terroir. Les notes de poivre de Sichuan couplées à des nuances de baies noires ouvrent la voie à un vin soyeux, puissant, concentré et digeste, même dans sa jeunesse, grâce à des tannins d'une grande finesse. Que du bonheur et certainement une des très grandes réussites de Pomerol… et de Bordeaux. 2030-2070 100/100

Vinous

100

byNeal Martinthe2/12/2025

The 2022 Vieux Château Certan was stellar from barrel. Now, just a week after I retasted the immortal 1947, this latest iteration proves that quality remains as high under Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont as it did during the golden postwar era under Georges Thienpoint. Boasting an intense bouquet of blackberry, briar, iodine and iris flower, this is one of the most complex and mesmerizing wines in all of Bordeaux this vintage, let alone Pomerol. The palate offers exquisite balance, razor-sharp tannins, real sapidity and a fabulous grainy texture. The Cabernet components are very expressive and lend a completely different dimension to the finish. This is exceptional.

Jamessuckling.com

99

byJames Sucklingthe2/3/2025

This is full-bodied with fine tannins that spread out across the palate, a dusty cashmere texture kicking in at the end. So caressing and pleasing, I can’t spit. Drink in 2029 and beyond.

Vinous

100

byAntonio Gallonithe1/28/2025

The 2022 Vieux Château Certan is s total stunner. Readers will find a magical wine, a Pomerol that satisfies both the intellectual and hedonistic senses. Vertical and explosive, with stunning presence, the 2022 VCC simply has it all. Time in the glass reveals myriad shades of nuance. Blue/purplish fruit, lavender, spice, menthol, licorice and plum literally soar out of the glass. The tannins are present but nearly buried by the wine's deep, layered fruit. But more than anything else, it is the balance, the total sense of harmony, that is most impressive. I simply can’t ask anything more of the 2022, hence its lofty and well-deserved rating. Bravo!

Wine Maniacs

97-98

byLin Liuthe5/30/2023

Decanter.com

98

byGeorgina Hindlethe5/25/2023

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.

Vinous

97-99

byNeal Martinthe5/17/2023

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.

The Vintage Journal

99-100

byAndrew Caillard MWthe5/17/2023

Deep colour. Lovely violet, camomile, dark plum, blackberry fruits with touches of graphite. Underlying roasted chestnut/ hazelnut notes. Richly flavoured musky plum, strawberry roasted chestnut/ vanilla flavours, with panforte, touch wax polish notes, supple chalky looseknit tannins and underlying cedar notes. Finishes velvety and saline/ minerally. Utterly seductive wine. Every thing in perfect balance. 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14.4% alc

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

96

byJane Ansonthe5/16/2023

Firm tannic frame, with ink, graphite, violet flowers and red roses, even hints of black truffles at this young age, a sign of the exuberance of the vintage and one that will no doubt increase with age. A little less Cabernet Franc in the blend than usual because they have one plot uprooted right now. The aromatics are explosing, but things are more serious on the palate, with grip and austerity, and it will need a good eight to ten years in bottle to soften. Beautiful nutmeg and clove spice, with a mouthwatering finish. 35hl/h yield. 65% new oak. Oldest vines date back to 1958. 75% new oak

matthewjukes.com

19,5

byMatthew Jukesthe5/15/2023

The Wine Independent

98-100

byLisa Perrotti-Brownthe5/15/2023

A blend of 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon with a yield of 35 hl/ha, the 2022 Vieux Chateau Certan is deep garnet-purple in color. After a swirl or two, notes of black cherry preserves, black raspberries, and juicy black plums rocket out of the glass, followed by suggestions of star anise, lilacs, rose oil, and truffles with a waft of fertile loam. The full-bodied palate slowly grows in the mouth with layers of emerging mineral, floral, and exotic spice nuances intertwined with concentrated black fruits, supported by super-plush tannins and perfectly knit freshness, culminating in a very long-lasting firework display of floral and spice notes. pH 3.78.

Yvesbeck.wine

98-100

byYves Beckthe5/10/2023

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 puissasnts. 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 !

Bettane & Desseauve

97-98

by Bettane & Desseauvethe5/10/2023

Les cabernets (20 % de franc et 5 % de sauvignon) trament la bouche et apportent le panache de la finale. Les 75 % de merlot confèrent tout le soyeux voulu. Il va encore bien évoluer dans les prochaines décennies mais il est déjà délicieux.

Jeb DUNNUCK

98-100

byJeb Dunnuckthe5/10/2023

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.

Vinous

98-100

byAntonio Gallonithe5/9/2023

The 2022 Vieux Château Certan is a wine of tremendous sophistication and polish. I expected to see a more opulent VCC, but the 2022 is surprisingly delicate and nuanced. The blend is 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, which means all the Cabernets at the château were used in Grand Vin. Perhaps that explains the wine’s construction, favoring length, persistence and aromatics more than size. Crème de cassis, lavender, spice and licorice hints linger on the super-expressive finish. There’s really not much more to say except that the 2022 is magical. “Real heat started in June," explained Alexandre Thienpont. “We had 15mm of rain over two days in mid-August that really helped. Even so, yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare, so lower than 2020. Berries weighed less athan a gram and juice yields were low.” Drinking window : 2032-2062

The Wine Cellar Insider

97-99

byJeff Levethe5/5/2023

Dark in color, and equally dark in fruit, you already find truffles, violets, roses, lilacs, black plums cherries. The palate is sensuous, supple, and silky, with a vibrancy to the fruits, a mild of touch of salt, and a refreshing hint of mint that shines at the back end of the finish. Refined, and elegant, this is going to age and evolve for decades. The wine blends 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14.4% ABV, 3.78 pH. The harvest took place September 6 - September 21. Yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2027-2060.

Wine Advocate

97-99

byWilliam Kelleythe5/2/2023

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.

Jamessuckling.com

98-99

byJames Sucklingthe4/19/2023

The freshness and dynamic sense to the wine is so surprising. Minerally and salty. It's full yet racy. Black ink and oyster shell. Excellent length. 25% cabernet franc, 5% cabernet sauvignon and the rest, merlot.