This is off the charts. I am blown away. This is so concentrated yet perfect. With chocolate, blackberry, coffee. Full and amazing in density and balanced. The grapes were tiny and the production was tiny. I am speechless. This may match the legendary 1947 or 1945.

(86% merlot, 8% cabernet franc and 6% cabernet sauvignon; 3.7 pH; 90 IPT; 75% new oak; 14.5 % alcohol) Deep purple-ruby. Knockout nose displays amazingly penetrating aromas of black cherry, cassis, violet, pungent herbs and minerals; for me, this is the nose of the vintage! Then rich, fresh and mouthfilling, with lively acidity framing and lifting the wine's dark fruit, floral and mineral flavors. The very long, palate-saturating finish features building tannins that turn just slightly astringent at the back. Had the tannins been just a bit finer, this might have been the wine of the vintage. Alexandre Thienpont feels that this wine is similar to the 1950, while the 2009 is more like the 1948, and he notes there was 20% less production in 2010 than in 2009.

What an amazing duo of wines from proprietor Alexandre Thienpont, who thinks his second wine, the La Gravette de Certan, is better in 2010 than many of the vintages of Vieux Chateau Certan produced in the 1970s - and I agree. It is a complex, relatively evolved style of wine that represents one-third of the production in 2010. An equal-part blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, it has a deep purple color and a wonderfully sweet nose of raspberries, black cherries, mulberries, licorice and foresty notes. Full-bodied and evolved, this wine has gorgeous texture and remarkable opulence. It can be drunk now or cellared for 10-15 years.

A stunner, this marries structured tobacco, ganache and loam notes to a glorious core of raspberry, blackberry and plum coulis flavors, accented by coffee, roasted mesquite and black tea aromatics. A terrific minerality courses throughout, with the finish letting power and refinement play out almost endlessly. Best from 2017 through 2040. -JM