- CRITICAL REVIEWS
- WINEMAKER NOTES
RP
97
Robert Parker Wine Advocate
A blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Vieux Château Certan bursts with aromas of blackberries, sweet spices, rose petals, orange zest, burning embers and violets framed by a deft application of creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's rich and layered, with a more broad, unctuous profile than the pure and refined 2019, concluding with a long, resonant finish. This is more immediate out of the gates than the 2019, and I suspect it will not prove quite as long lived, but it is a terrific effort from the Thienpont family. Reviewed by: William Kelley, Issue date: April 2023, Drinking window: 2025 - 2055
2020 Vieux Chateau Certan, Pomerol, France
A radiant vintage !The 2020 growing season was marked by the striking contrast between an incredibly rainy winter and a durably dry and often hot summer. A homogeneous and rather thin flowering began in mid-May and led to an early harvest that produced a low crop yield.
The old vines, their vigor favourably slowed by this drought, produced wonderfully deep colored, concentrated and balanced wines. Merlot is intensely aromatic, dense, full and with breed. It rolls over the tongue. It's the Merlot that marks this vintage. The Cabernet Franc, with its small, concentrated berries, produced a smooth-textured wine of amazing complexity; It is flavoursome and has good length offlavour.
The Vieux Chateau Certan 2020 is a radiant wine and displays a deep purple red hue of rare depth and beautiful aromas of ripe fruit. Its remarkable balance between freshness and concentration enable all the qualities of a great long-ageing wine to shine through.
Technical data
Harvesting | from 14th to 24th September for the Merlot, then on 28th and 29th September for the Cabernet Franc. |
Yield | 30 hectolitres per hectare. |
Blend | 85 % Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc. |
Alcoholic degree | 14,5 %/vol. |
Bottling | from 27th June to 8th July 2022 |
"The first bottles may be enjoyed between 2028 and 2030, while the rest could be kept another good twenty years or more."
Alexandre Thienpontt