Vieux Chateau Certan - Dinner 2025 - 2022

Thienpont - 100 years on the right bank in Bordeuax.

Grandfather Georges Thienpont bought Vieux Château Certan for his wife, Josephine, in the Spring of 1924. This was the second foray into Bordeaux Chateau ownership for the Flemmish wine merchant having previously bought Château Troplong Mondot in Saint Emilion in 1921.

This was the start of a Family dynasty with a focus on the right bank that is stronger today than ever before. Tonight's dinner looks at a range of wine made by the extended Thienpont Family with a special focus on the amazing 2022 vintage and the wines of Vieux Chateau Certan. As the Tienponts enter their second century of winemaking in Bordeaux there are about 40 family members of the current generation involved in the wine business. They own, manage, or make wine for châteaux including Alcée, Bouty, Chantecaille Clauzel, Clos Fontaine, Guillot Clauzel, Laclaverie, Larcis Ducasse, La Prade, L'Hêtre, L'If, Le Pin, Les Charmes Godard, Pavie Macquin, Puygueraud, Robin, and Vieux Château Certan, as well as owning other wine brands and merchant businesses. There is no joint family ownership of all these ventures, and thus no central planning. Only Vieux Château Certan-or VCC as it is familiarly known-stands as a commonly held property among the Thienponts, but even there not all Thienponts are equal owners.

Vieux Château Certan - is currently under the stewardship of Guillaume Thienpont - Emma's husband and his father Alexandre. Together they have elevated the reputation of VCC to one of the most outstanding wine estates on the right bank. Guillaume is also the winemaker at the ultra exclusive original 'garagiste' wine Le Pin, owned by his uncle Jacques.
VCC consist of a smidge over 14 hectares of vines - planted to Merlot 70%, Cabernet Franc 25% and Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Chateau Puygueraud - Francs Côtes de Bordeaux (20 minutes drive to the west of Pomerol) has been in the Thienpont family since 1946 but the first wine was not produced until 1983 - Cyrille is Guillaume's second cousin and the current manager of the estate - The property consists of 47 hectares of vines 5 of which are white. The make up being 80% Merlot 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec. resting on clay and limestone soils and limestone with asterias, marl and clay subsoils.

Guillot Clauzel - Pomerol consists of a tiny 2.4 hectares of vines a few hundred meters from Le Pin and VCC - 83% Merlot and 17% Cabernet Franc - Guillaume has been managing the estate and making the wine since 2018.

2022 the vintage summary by Fiona Morrison - 

2022 is a miraculous vintage. It was the year that the vine showed its resilience to climate change and adapted to both the heat and the drought that were present throughout the summer, to make elegant, fresh, fruity wines that often showed the best of the terroirs in which they grow. We have never seen anything like it!

To quickly sum up the weather patterns: A period of cold weather in January allowed the vines to become dormant so they could regenerate for the year ahead. As the vines began to grow, the weather turned warm and stayed so until the end of the harvest with more than 30 days during the summer months reaching over 30°C. The flowering happened quickly and evenly throughout Bordeaux. Heavy rainstorms at the end of June were a welcome respite for the parched soils although two bands of hail did considerable damage in St. Estèphe and the Haut Médoc as they diagonally crossed the Gironde estuary at the same time. The drought meant that the grapes were small and concentrated which accounted for the small yields during harvest. The drought was felt everywhere, particularly for holiday makers on the Atlantic coast where huge fires in the pine forests of the Landes destroyed over 20,000 hectares of forest.

So how come the wines are so good? Firstly, because the weather was already warm during the start of the growth period, the vines realised early on that they had to adapt to these weather conditions. They produced less foliage as there was going to be sufficient light and heat to ripen their grapes and when the veraison came, they quickly changed their efforts from vegetative growth to berry development. It may be too fanciful to say that vines have a memory which helps them to adapt to climate change, but we did indeed see that the vines knew how to adapt to this year's weather conditions.

Secondly, the grapes were in perfect health with no fungal diseases. Instead of spraying the grapes, the attention was drawn to the architecture of the vine. Growers made sure that there was a parasol effect so that the vines were shaded, especially on the west side of the vine rows and only a dappled light effect could enter the canopy. They did very little leaf stripping and then only on the east side of the vines and no green harvest. In fact, this year, vignerons tended to leave the vines to their own devices. Their confidence in them was rewarded.

Thirdly, throughout the summer and autumn, the nights were fresh, creating a large temperature difference between day and night, which many believed helped to "polish" the tannins in the skins as the grapes expanded and contracted. This also helped to keep the vines fresh and allowed them to rest overnight.

Finally, Bordeaux has learnt a great deal about viticulture in these times of climate change: Pruning techniques have changed: pruning later than in the past to avoid frost damage to the buds and spreading the vine over a double guyot to open the vine and extend its branches. Heavy ploughs are no longer used in the vineyards, as they could break up the earth around the roots. Instead, electric rakes just scratch the surface, so humidity can get underground without disturbing the soils., Mulch or cover crops are put in the vine rows, maybe doing this once every two or three rows to keep the balance right and the stress levels down, to make sure there was enough water preserved underground. The microbial life around the root system has become very important to keep the worms and the vines happy. Bordeaux vineyards today look very different from the tidy but barren parcels of a decade or so ago with their vegetation cut like a hedge to keep everything neat and tidy.
Why should you buy these wines? Most importantly 2022 is a surprisingly successful vintage with delicious, elegant, fruit and fresh wines. Bordeaux has shown that it can make extraordinary wines in a hot and dry year and that its vines are going to survive. If you want to buy a beautiful vintage in the time of climate change, that has incredible aging potential, this is it. FIONA MORRISON - Master of Wine