2003 Vieux Château Certan
France
Pomerol
Bordeaux
Red
82% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc (2023 vintage)
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2022 - 2030
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"Two thousand five was my twentieth vintage," said Alexandre Thienpont, "and it's the first time I can honestly say that we were saved by the rain." Hydric stress was a serious issue here in 2005 (one batch of cabernet franc was declassified due to the drought, and the estate's cabernet sauvignon, planted with what Thienpont describes as the wrong clones, was even more adversely affected). And the half-inch or so of rain that fell here on September 10 was perfectly timed for the merlot harvest that began two days later. This is a very merlot-dominated vintage (the blend is 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc), but the acidity level of 3.4 grams per liter is higher than usual here. In contrast, the superb 2004 is much more about cabernet franc, and considerably more rigorous in the early going.
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After struggling under difficult conditions in 2003, Alexandre Thienpont pulled out all the stops in the vineyard in 2004, and has produced a classic, complete Vieux Chateau Certan that should thrill fans of this property. "We did no fewer than five passes through the vines during the summer," he told me. "Each vine saw the same person five times." The ultimate yield was 40 hectoliters per hectare, and only the estate's oldest vines went into the grand vin "It's a classic vintage with the purity of the '88," added Thienpont, whose list of favorite years for VCC includes 2004, 2000, 1996, 1988 and 1983-not all of them obvious superstars in Pomerol. But then the character of Vieux Chateau Certan is often largely determined by the quality of its cabernet.
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Alexandre Thienpont, always a candid judge of vintages, was probably sick of telling visitors how difficult the 2003 harvest was by the time I stopped by to taste. "Our vines on normally early-maturing, well-drained soils were burnt out by the extreme heat of the summer, including our cabernet sauvignon. The roots of our vines go down two meters, but the water level was five or six meters down. Eight years out of ten we benefit by getting our fruit ripe earlier than St. Emilion or the Medoc, but not in 2003." The 2002 Vieux Chateau Certan will be 80% merlot and 20% franc. "We need the merlot to give the wine sucrosite," Thienpont explained, "because our cabernet franc always becomes a bit hard after a year in barrel." Ultimate production here will probably be only about 800 cases, down from a normal 4,000. The family's Le Pin parcel, on mostly gravel and sand, was even more scorched by heat and drought in 2003, and Thienpont expected to blend this juice into a generic Pomerol.
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