Château Certan de May

Château Certan De May, Pomerol, 2022

Name: Château Certan De May, Pomerol
Brand: Château Certan de May
Price: 595 GBP

92/100

Inside Bordeaux

90/100

The Wine Independent

88/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2017 2018 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

delivery

in bond

En primeur

2022
6x75cl
EP
£595.00

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Jean-Claude Berrouet, the former wine-maker at Petrus has been consulting here for a few years and we've witnessed a gradual improvement, however, this is clearly not at the same level as the top Moueix wines. Produced from 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon on clay and deep gravel soils, this emerges reticently from the glass. Initially, rather underwhelming, it's worth sticking with. Some bright fruit emerges along with lots of serious gravelly notes - it grows in stature revealing some bright fruit and leafy cassis. Reserved and rather classical.

delivery information

GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of utmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

90/100

Chris Kissack,

The Wine Independent

As always this has a blend which features a lot of Cabernet, with 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the remaining 60% being all Merlot. The Cabernet certainly comes through on the nose, which opens with rosehips, cedar, pencil shavings and juniper over a layer of dark and curranty fruit. The palate shows a medium-bodied presence, with quite juicy dark fruit at its heart, with aromatic notes of red pepper, pomegranate and spice hidden within before a sappy backbone of tannins emerge and dominate the finish and length. The raw material here is clearly good, but I feel there should be more harmony and integration on the palate. The alcohol on the label is 14.5%.

drinking window 2027 - 2047

date of review 06/2025

92/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Liquorice, cocoa bean, espresso, cappuccino, slate, graphite. All a little coiled in and intense, some grilled fruit character, bitter cocoa bean and espresso. Has closed in over ageing, I would give this a good few years in bottle to soften. Mme Barreau Badar owner; 5.5ha, harvest September 7 to 20, new cellars.

drinking window 2028 - 2042

date of review 03/2025

88/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2022 Certan de May has a lightweight bouquet with tertiary black fruit that lacks the panache of its peers. It has plenty of <em>sous-bois</em>, but there is a shortfall of fruit intensity. The palate has a light chassis with fine tannins. This is balanced yet missing real drive and vigor, plus there is an absence of grip on the finish, a shortcoming exposed by juxtaposition with its peers. Sadly, this Pomerol does not move me when I know it can.

drinking window 2027 - 2042

date of review 02/2025

product details

Specifications

Country:

France

Region:

Bordeaux

Appellation:

Pomerol

Producer:

Château Certan de May

style:

Red Wine

Grape Variety:

Merlot Cabernet Franc

abv:

13%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.