Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: One of the most beautiful VCCs of the decade. The wine is developing brilliant volume, with amazing energy and refined and subtle intensity, finishing with persistent notes of red berries on the palate. Volume, fullness, perfume. 19

John Gilman: Vieux Château Certan is one of my favorite estates in all Bordeaux, but the 2010 will not find its way into my cellar. The wine has turned out quite well for the vintage on the Right Bank, but it is a pretty heady wine at 14.5% ABV and suffers just a bit in terms of aromatic and flavor precision as a result. Like the 2009 here, the blend includes a bit more Merlot than is customary. The blend turned out to be a bit of a surprise, since many Right Bank producers mentioned how exceptional the Cabernet Franc turned out in 2010, but perhaps the drought conditions produced some hydric stress in the Cab Franc at VCC and imperfect ripening as a result. The wine is, of course, still very good, offering up a deep and ripe blend of black cherries, dark chocolate, nutty tones, cigar smoke, gravelly soil nuances, and a distinct top note of coffee bean. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and broad-shouldered, with a firm core of ripe fruit, suave tannins, good balance, and fine length and grip on the palate-staining and quite powerful finish. There are absolutely no signs of overripeness here on nose or palate, and the alcohol is perfectly buried into the body of the wine, but it lacks just a touch of the customary VCC spark at this octane level. 2022–60. 17.5

Michael Schuster: Dense, sweet, minerally and spicy nose, with no sense of overripeness; beautifully balanced, elegant wine, fresh in acidity, with a fine-textured, firm tannin and no excess alcohol presence, despite the 14.5% ABV. Full-bodied, strongly mineral-infused, ripe black-cherry flavor, complex, prolonged, with a vital definition from its acidity, an underlying creaminess, and excellent fragrance on its long, stony, black-cherry finish. Packed with fruit yet remarkably transparent, well-defined, and strongly mineral as well. Graceful, complete, sumptuous, large-scale VCC. A great success in the year. 2022–40+. 18/18.5+