Amazing purity, oyster shell, ripe cherry and plum, floral aromatics. Incredible texture, sweetness of fruit, complexity, layer upon layer of cashmere textured fruit, such persistence. So savoury and intense through the finish. Total symmetry and balance. There is no way you would know it was 14.4%. Can it get better than this? - April 2019

The 2018 Vieux Château Certan is composed of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, weighing in with 14.4% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 77. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the nose is locked down tight at this youthful stage, requiring a lot of patient swirling to release a profound powerhouse of a perfume: preserved plums, blueberry compote, ripe black cherries and boysenberries, leading to suggestions of Indian spices, lilacs, espresso and licorice, plus a waft of sandalwood. The medium to full-bodied palate has an amazing sense of cohesiveness. There are no edges to the seamless flow of exquisitely fine-grained tannins and perfectly knit acidity, beautifully framing the blue and black fruits, which are at once elegant and also so, so rich. It finishes with many slowly lapping waves of minerals and exotic spices, which just go on and on. It is a wine that is, simply put, an experience not to be missed. Give it a good 6-8 years in the cellar and drink it over the next 30 years or more. LPB

Blackberry and hints of plum with intense wet-earth and black-olive undertones. Bark and some iodine. Full-bodied with superb depth of fruit and structure. The palate is so broad with super tannins. This is a powerful and very structured VCC with fantastic depth and muscle. Down-to-earth style. You can taste the soil. 70% merlot and 30% cabernet franc. One for long cellar aging. Old-vine character. Try after 2027.

There is no hotter wine in Pomerol these days than Vieux Chateau Certan.2018 joins 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2019 in the pantheon of incredible vintages for VCC! The opaque colored wine explodes with dark red, black and blue fruits, dark cocoa, herbs, flowers, spice, wet earth and licorice in the nose. If that didn't hook you, the incredible level of density, with its palate coating richness and seamless over 60 second finish with all its velvet and silk textured fruits with their remarkable purity will. This is a future legend of Bordeaux. If decadent drinking is your thing, this belongs in your cellar.

The flagship 2018 Vieux Château Certan is based on 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc and was brought up in (I suspect) roughly 50% new French oak. It tips the scale at 14.5% natural alcohol, which is the same as the 2010 (slightly higher than the 2009) and has a pH of 3.78, which is also very close to the 2010. This rock star of a Pomerol offers a kaleidoscopic array of red, black, and blue fruits, white truffle, spring flowers, tobacco, and crushed rock-like minerality on the nose. It has perfectly integrated oak, gorgeous concentration, building yet ultra-fine tannins, and not a hard edge to be found. I was able to follow this bottle for multiple days, and the large Cabernet Franc component became more and dominant, yet it never truly shut down and was always a joy to drink. Nevertheless, a good 7-8 years of bottle age are warranted, and it should evolve for 30-40 years in cold cellars. Again, the Thienpont family produces a heavenly wine that wine lovers should all have in their cellar. Along with Petrus, Conseillante, Lafleur, and a handful of others, it's one of the appellation's most singular wines.

Deep and richly spiced notes of cinnamon and smoked butterscotch along with Cabernet Franc-dominant savoury fruits. Expands in all directions, showing precision and delicately brushed tannins. They carried out extremely careful selection from their 23 plots to ensure nothing at all raisined or over-concentrated made it into the wine, and certainly there is not a trace of the drought in the flavours here, just a seductively rich texture to the body of the wine. A brilliant VCC - one to savour. Harvest from September 19 to October 9, with leisurely picking over three weeks. 3.75pH.
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 10 Nov 2020)
Part of Bordeaux 2018 in bottle: full overview plus top scoring wines

The 2018 Vieux Château Certan is delicate, silky and understated, just as it was in barrel. Inky blue/purplish berry fruit, mint, lavender, spice and wild flowers all open in the glass. The 30% Cabernet Franc, which is high for present-day standards, adds tons of aromatic lift as well as freshness, while bright, saline-infused notes extend the finish. Fine tannins and mid-weight structure give the 2018 an air of finesse that is impossible to miss. If I had to bet on one 2018 that could very well surprise 10-20 years out, it might very well be VCC.

The 2018 Vieux Château Certan is deeply impressive. It possesses one of the most intense aromatics that I can remember on a nascent VCC, bursting from the glass with intense black cherries, cassis and violets that are even more pronounced than when I first tasted this from barrel. The palate is exuberant, racing out of the blocks with precocious, intense black fruit wrapped up with a silky texture that makes it deceptively easy to drink. You would not pick this out as the subtlest VCC; instead, it is a long-term proposition, a comparatively opulent wine that may ultimately be feted as one of the appellation’s finest wines. Chapeau, Alexandre et Guillaume Thienpont!

In spite of the tropical spring and dry summer they were not affected by mildew at VCC. Alexandre and his son Guillaume Thienpont anticipated the rhythm of the downy mildew and tackled it perfectly. They had the same sort of attack in 2000 and they survived this, too. The summer was not excessively warm at VCC and they had cool nights which is superb for Cabernet Franc and this offset the power and intensity of the Merlot. ‘Cashmere’ was Alexandre’s expression for the texture of his wine and this is better than any word I can come up with, so it will do. Unlike many of the other Pomerols, this wine leads with red fruit. The oldest vines in this wine were planted in 1932 and this goes some way to explaining the superb intensity on display. It is said that you cannot smell texture, but this wine smells incredibly silky. The nose shows exquisite complexity and on the palate there is considerable volume and length. The finish is crisp, tart and dry and it pinches the palate and this further alerts the senses. The layers of red fruit are positively kaleidoscopic flavours and with the never-ending finish the overall feeling is of a densely flavoured wine but one with a medium-bodied framework and this sleight of hand is thrilling. I wish I could have tasted this wine every day such was its appeal. It is yet another ridiculously brilliant wine from this magnificent estate. - MatthewJukes.com, April 2019

Darkest cherry red. Dark fruited and quite mineral on the nose, but fragrant with that dark, subtle fruit. Lively and with a dash of herbs for complexity. At the moment this is rather sober on the palate. That Cabernet freshness is there and bringing great finesse to the tannins. Opens up to more dark and subtle fragrance. Really refined and beautifully dry and elegant. Very long, very tender in texture even if there's a charge of tannins hiding underneath. There is a subtle beauty. I need half an hour with this wine not five minutes because it unfurls on the palate. This is already a great wine but it is going to be a very great wine. Alexandre Thienpont describes it as cashmere but I think of it as the finest of cotton sheets, ironed smooth, with very high thread count. - Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com, April 2019