2002 Vieux Château Certan

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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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Here's another 2002 right-bank wine with near-freakish numbers. VCC includes 40% cabernet franc, which at 13.8% potential alcohol was the richest in sugar ever at this estate. Alexandre Thienpont considers it the best cabernet franc since 1993, and ranks the young 2002 alongside other top vintages that benefitted from high-quality cab franc: 1996, 1993, 1988, 1983. The young 2002 had been assembled just 12 days before my visit.