Community Tasting Note

Cailles wrote:

Thursday, June 8, 2023 - Vieux Chateau Certan 2014-2017 tasted side -by-side. No detailed notes taken. Winner was the 2016 as it had the most finesse and a precision and purity unmatched by the other vintages. The other vintages were a bit less exciting today (all 92/93pts) but all have potential for more. Once thing that was striking: at least this young, I couldn‘t find the big common denominator. Blind, I wouldn‘t have guessed these wines to be all from the same Chateau.

2014 - 93pts: I like this wine quite a lot and rated it 95pts before. But this bottle was a bit more muted (it was a root day). Constantly evolving this was all about minerality and soil notes with a fresh, a bit timid fruit component. With time some coffee notes got this to a higher level. Quite elegant but without the depth (15/16) or precision (16) of great vintages.

2015 - 93pts: This was the most sensual, smooth, satiny wine with loads of ripe fruit and a bit too much spices for my taste. While this can become a great vintage, it is a bit too much today for my taste. A bit too Napa-esque. The alcohol is quite well covered. My guess is that once this sheds its baby fat and better integrates, this could become a great wine in the 95+ point category.

2016 - 95pts: This wine perfectly reflected the elegance, depth and hyper purity of the vintage. That extra kick of freshness and all the cooler blue fruit notes got me. This could become a masterpiece and has a lot of upside. It was a joy to drink today and hence the 95pts but once mature, this should reach the 97+ pts category.

2017 - 92 pts: In the best moments this showed great promise with fine pure red fruit, coffee and minerality. But throughout the evening this never fully opened up but especially never fully integrated well. I‘ve had some other 2017s which are drinking exceptionally well today. This bottle didn‘t. 91/92pts today but I see higher potential for this.

Decanting: All wines needed time to open up and improved markedly with air. I would at least go for two hours in the decanter for all of them.

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