2004 Vieux Château Certan
France
Pomerol
Bordeaux
Red
70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc
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2024 - 2040
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2022 - 2040
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Since the difficult heat-wave vintage of 2003, Alexandre Thienpont has crafted a trio of beauties, all among the standouts of their respective vintages in Pomerol. Thienpont told me that the 2006 growing season produced grapes with high sugars because there was no hydric stress, but that although he began harvesting quite early, on September 12, rain that week required a strict sorting of fruit as rot spread quickly. Ultimately, he produced just 35 hectoliters per hectare, following a saignee of 8% to 12%. The wine, he said, will be "joyful and voluptuous." Alexandre routinely tells me how much he prefers VCC to his limited cult wine Le Pin. He always finds VCC "more complex and complete but not as easy as Le Pin. And the market loves easy," he says.
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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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