2020 Vieux Château Certan

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 98.5 points

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  4/1/2024 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 99 Points

  Great right from the start but better with several hours air. Very dense and luxurious on the palate. Plums, dark chocolate, dried herbs, minerals, cassis…. Perfect balance. Long haul wine but approachable now.

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  8/5/2023 - MJP Hou TX Likes this wine: 98 Points

  The temptation to pull corks overcame me when some of my 2020 EP purchases arrived. I opened this from 750 along side a 2020 La Conseillante. Both consumed over two days.
  
  When tasted along side La Conseillante it's easy to come to the conclusion Pomerol produced some incredible wines in 2020. Power, structure and finesse are all terms that come to mind. Very early to be opening these wines especially the VCC as it was the more unforgiving of the two at PNP. The noses on both are floral and intoxicating.
  
  On the palate the fine tannins are firm and the finish is long. Splitting hairs to say which one is better as both offer amazing experiences now but resolve and become legends in their own right.
  
  VCC edges out La Conseillante by a hair but both belong deep in the cellar. There is no doubt if you catch these at the right time they'll be perfect expressions of these vineyards and 2020 vintage.
  
  Hold
  
  98++

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  3/21/2023 - Jeff Leve wrote: 100 Points

  An extraordinary effort, the wine is almost opaque in color. The haunting perfume offers a bouquet of flowers, black, red and blue fruits, chocolate, spice, espresso and hints of truffles on the nose. Incredibly concentrated, but equally light on its feet, the wine is effortless to taste. With polished, velvet textures and fruits that express purity coupled with spice, chocolate, wet earth and sensuality, the finish crosses the 60 second mark and keeps on going! This is a youthful look at one of the future legendary vintages for Vieux Chateau Certan. If this is your thing, and if you have the extra income, buy it now as prices will only rise from here. Drink from 2027-2065.

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  7/15/2021 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 98 Points

  2021 Bordeaux Tasting Trip; 7/12/2021-7/16/2021 (Bordeaux): A tasting in Bordeaux of 71 wines, some of the best I have ever had and others, umm, well were disappointing. If you read the Tasting story (and my grading history) I think it will do a much better job putting this in perspective.
  
  Vieux Chateau Certan is not a Trophy wine that Americans buy to throw their junk on a table and show off (crude I know but reality), it’s a wine that really only knowledgeable wine drinkers are aware of and not well known to Americans. Further they do not advertise or market or do any publicly at all, they are farmers/winemakers and that’s what they know (FYI going forward same winemaker as Le Pin GT). If there was an ounce of marketing they would be priced 2x++ what it is today. First we tasted the 2020 second wine, La Gravette de Certan, then 2020 VCC, then 2010 and then the 2019 (requested a comparison after the fact). The suite of wines were outstanding, period- and they know it with a shy smile and a nod.
  
  While the 2020 had the large price increase (like others) it made other much more expensive wines look like they were playing in little league baseball while VCC just won the championship. While I am not familiar with Petrus or Screaming Eagle (only familiar with the second wine) nor truly understand Burgundy, I can say without a doubt VCC was the wine of the trip and the best wine at the price- and one of the best wines we have ever had.
  
  Holy mother of gd this is insane and can’t be for real. Nectar of the gds right here and now. As the thief started to pour the wine into our glasses, the bouquet slaps you playfully with incredible intensity and incomparable never ending perfume of flavor after flavor that never seems to end… we all snap our heads in attention and our mouth waters, as what it must be like for a crack addict, a burning desire to rip the glass from its location and ingest this magical elixir immediately while staying cool calm collected on the outside… Well that was what I intended anyway…
  
  Once in the mouth, there is an explosion of flavors that hit you from all directions with the finesse of a professional ice skater and the artistry of Picasso/Monet/[fill in your artist of choice here] where you stare at the artwork and marvel at its vision and unspoken message. It has an incredible complexity providing a kaleidoscope of flavors that will be hard to be matched anywhere at any price, enhanced by the most incredible mouthfeel, which can only be described as silk velvet wrapped in full structure coating the mouth creating nearly a 90 second finish- yes really. Without an ability to even come close to expressing how fing good this is, I almost didn’t try as anything I wrote would not even come close… do you think I liked the wine? Nope absolutely in love with it.
  
  If you have never heard of VCC, you will soon enough. If you haven’t tasted one, you are missing out on what wine is all about. If you haven’t had one in its peak drinking window, regardless if early or towards the end, I don’t think one truly has experienced all of what wine has to offer (while it may not be affordable, either save up and stop buying other wine or find a friend or pool some friends together and chip in to buy one- and if doing that, buy the 2010 as it’s firing on all cylinders and will only continue to get better every day- IMO (I purposefully left out humble). 98-100 Cheers!

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  6/22/2021 - watcheslover Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Very great wine

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