Base of neck; lightly bin soiled label

93 points John Gilman

1988 is a vintage that does not get a lot of respect in the pantheon of great years in the decade of the eighties, but there are an awful lot of stellar wines out there from this unheralded year, with the 1988 Vieux Château Certan amongst the finest that I have tasted in the last couple of years. The wine is now just reaching its apogee of peak drinkability and soars from the glass in a blaze of bitter chocolate, dark berries, iron, blood orange, cigar ash and a complex base of gravelly soil tones. On the palate the wine is fullish, deep and intensely flavored, with a fine core of fruit, melting tannins, excellent focus and a very long, refined and balanced finish that closes with great soil flavors and exemplary grip. A stellar bottle of Pomerol that is just entering its plateau of maturity. (8/2009)