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2020 Vieux Chateau Certan

6 available
Minimum Bid Per Bottle is $265
Ends Sunday, 7pm Pacific

ITEM 10195583 - Removed from a subterranean, temperature and humidity controlled residential cellar; Purchased upon release; Consignor is original owner

Bidder Quantity Amount Total
6 $265
2020 Vieux Chateau Certan

RATINGS

100Jeb Dunnuck

...deep, powerful, full-bodied style as well as incredible purity and precision in its darker cassis, graphite, gravelly earth, and tobacco-driven aromatics. With perfectly integrated oak, again, incredible purity, and perfect, ultra-fine tannins...

99James Suckling

Real Pomerol here with black berry, chocolate, hazelnut and walnut aromas and flavors. Dark fruits. Crushed stone. It’s full and intense with great focus. Powerful yet so balanced and intense. Juicy center palate. Fantastic length. Great clarity.

97The Wine Advocate

...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.

97Wine Enthusiast

This wine has a surprising amount of Merlot in the blend for the estate. That gives richness and density to a wine that is already structured and stylish.

96Vinous / IWC

...wine of total harmony and finesse. Absolutely nothing is out of place. Supple and seamless, the 2020 is an infant, but it is so impressive. Crème de cassis, lavender, mocha and licorice are some of the many notes that emerge from the glass...

17.5+ Jancis Robinson

...has lovely pure dark fruit. Silky-smooth tannins, so elegant and refined but with great persistence.

PRODUCER

Vieux Chateau Certan

Vieux-Chateau-Certan is one of the oldest estates in Pomerol. It was founded in the 16th century in the heart of Pomerol’s most remarkable viticultural plateau. The wine is unclassified in terms of official Bordeaux classifications, but the 33-acre estate has long had a reputation for making outstanding wines. Until the mid-20th century, when Petrus became a famous name, Vieux-Chateau-Certan was considered the finest wine of the Pomerol. The estate is run by Alexandre Thienpont, whose grandfather purchased it in 1924, and it is owned by a group of Thienpont family members, who also own Le Pin. Vieux-Chateau-Certan has achieved a cult status and the wine distinguishes itself from other Pomerols by having a high percentage of Cabernet Franc, often nearly 30%. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that VCC “never has the strength of a Petrus, or other Merlot-dominated wines of the plateau, but it often has a perfume and elegance that recalls a top wine from the Medoc.”

REGION

France, Bordeaux, Pomerol

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux’s red wine producing regions, with only about 2,000 acres of vineyards. Located on the east side of the Dordogne River, it is one of the so-called “right bank” appellations and therefore planted primarily to Merlot. Pomerol is unique in Bordeaux in that it is the only district never to have been rated in a classification system. Some historians think Pomerol’s location on the right bank made it unattractive to Bordeaux-based wine traders, who had plenty of wine from Medoc and Graves to export to England and northern Europe. Since ranking estates was essentially a marketing ploy to help brokers sell wine, ranking an area where they did little business held no interest for them. Pomerol didn’t get much attention from the international wine community until the 1960s, when Jean-Pierre Moueix, an entrepreneurial wine merchant, started buying some of Pomerol’s best estates and exporting the wines. Today the influential Moueix family owns Pomerol’s most famous estate, Château Pétrus, along with numerous other Pomerol estates. Pomerol wines, primarily Merlot blended with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, are considered softer and less tannic than left bank Bordeaux.