Vieux Château Certan

The estate

The name puts Vieux first: Vieux Château Certan, which the trade shortens to VCC. The Demay family, who had come from Scotland, founded the estate early in the 16th century, and Belleyme’s map of 1785 spells it Sertan. Charles de Bousquet bought it in 1858 and built the château that stands today. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, put it at the head of Pomerol in 1868, at 20 to 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and by 1874 they could write that the trade and the various authors on the wines of the Gironde had always held the old Château Certan to be the first great growth of Pomerol, a superiority they put down to the subsoil of ferruginous clay lying about 30 centimeters beneath its gravel. In Féret’s survey of 1897 it stood second only to Petrus, at 40 tonneaux.

Georges Thienpont, a Belgian négociant in Bordeaux who also owned Troplong Mondot in Saint-Émilion, bought Vieux Château Certan in 1924, and of all the Thienpont properties it is the one the family holds in common. Alexandre Thienpont took charge in 1985 and brought in green harvesting and leaf stripping; his son Guillaume has joined him and built the estate’s first laboratory. Pomerol has never been classified, so VCC carries no rank; the whole appellation is 813 hectares and 138 growers, 0.7% of Bordeaux.

The vineyard is a single block of 14 hectares in 23 plots, the same 14 hectares the guide described in 1874, on clay, on gravel and clay, and on deep gravel. It is planted 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, with vines 50 years old on average, and the blend usually runs to about 75% Merlot. The wine ferments for about 3 weeks in closed wooden vats and is aged 18 months in new French oak. La Gravette de Certan, the second wine, comes from the younger vines.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Classification

MICHELIN Guide, 2 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Thienpont family, in common, since 1924

Direction

Alexandre Thienpont, since 1985, with his son Guillaume

Vineyard

A single block of 14 hectares in 23 plots; vines 50 years old on average

Ground

Clay; gravel and clay; deep gravel

Grapes

Merlot 70%, Cabernet Franc 25%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%; the blend about 75% Merlot

Cellar

About 3 weeks in closed wooden vats; 18 months in new French oak

Wines

Vieux Château Certan; La Gravette de Certan

In history

Sertan on Belleyme’s map of 1785; at the head of Pomerol in 1868; second to Petrus in 1897

Sources: CIVB, the Pomerol appellation · Sotheby’s, Vieux Château Certan, a truly essential Pomerol · Vieux Château Certan, the estate · Vieux Château Certan, the vineyard · Vieux Château Certan, La Gravette de Certan · Thienpont Wine, Alexandre Thienpont · World of Fine Wine, the Thienponts of Bordeaux