Cover Fiona and Jacques Thienpont (Photo: Thienpont)
Fiona and Jacques Thienpont (Photo: Thienpont)
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Behind two of Bordeaux’s most revered estates, Vieux Château Certan and Le Pin, the Thienpont family has spent generations perfecting a style rooted in elegance over excess. Now, with leadership changing hands, a new chapter begins
Few names on Bordeaux’s Right Bank inspire quite the same reverence as Vieux Château Certan and Le Pin. Neighbours to Château Pétrus and Lafleur, the two estates could hardly be more different in scale: Vieux Château Certan, or VCC, spans 14 hectares, while Le Pin occupies just three. Yet together they have become benchmarks of Pomerol, shaped over decades by cousins Alexandre and Jacques Thienpont. In 2026, both estates entered a new chapter as the family began handing the reins to the next generation.
I spend an afternoon at Vieux Château Certan with Alexandre Thienpont, who has formally stepped back after decades at the helm, leaving the estate in the hands of his son, Guillaume. Alexandre is quietly reflective, soft-spoken and entirely at ease among the vines he has spent a lifetime tending. As we walk through the vineyard, he explains that VCC is planted predominantly with merlot, complemented by cabernet franc and a small amount of cabernet sauvignon. The vines average around 50 years of age, rooted in the estate’s signature clay-rich soils that give the wines their depth, structure and remarkable finesse.
Under Alexandre’s stewardship, VCC has become one of Bordeaux’s most intellectually compelling wines, prized less for power than for restraint and precision. Wine critic Neal Martin perhaps captured it best when he wrote, “VCC is always poetry, never prose.”
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Above Thienpont family’s L’Hêtre maison in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux.
Thienpont family’s L’Hêtre maison in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux.
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Matthew Hemming MW, group director of Fine Wine at Vinum Fine Wines, believes VCC occupies a unique position in Bordeaux. “You get a Pomerol every bit as compelling as the appellation’s greatest wines, yet at a price significantly below many of its peers,” he says. With a larger vineyard than many neighbouring estates, the family is able to produce more wine while maintaining exceptional quality. More importantly, he adds, VCC has developed a style that is immediately recognisable. “It is stylistically distinct and utterly delicious.” Compared with many of the Right Bank’s most sought-after labels, it is also relatively accessible in the market and has consistently performed well during Bordeaux's en primeur campaigns. Behind the château is another layer of expertise: the Thienponts have been respected wine merchants since 1842.
If Alexandre represents the quiet refinement of Vieux Château Certan, Jacques embodies another side of the family’s legacy. Through Domaines Jacques Thienpont, which today comprises Le Pin, L’If, L'Hêtre and Australia’s Pocket Gully, Jacques and his wife Fiona Morrison MW have steadily built a portfolio that reflects both tradition and an openness to new ideas.
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Above Thienpont family’s Vieux Château Certan
Thienpont family’s Vieux Château Certan
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Le Pin remains the jewel in that collection. When Jacques acquired the property in 1979, it was little more than a modest farmhouse surrounded by vines. Today it is one of the world’s most coveted wineries, producing only around 7,000 bottles annually. Its legend was cemented after the celebrated 1982 vintage received a perfect 100-point score from Robert Parker. Despite its reputation, Le Pin has never expanded beyond its intimate scale. The vineyard still covers only three hectares, enlarged gradually over the years through the acquisition of individual rows of neighbouring vines.
Among collectors, there is another bottle that inspires quiet excitement: Trilogie Par Jacques Thienpont. Produced from wines that do not make the final Le Pin blend, it is vinified in the same way before being blended across three vintages. Offered only to long-standing clients, it remains one of Bordeaux’s more elusive insider wines.
The winery itself is every bit as understated as the wine. Completed in 2011 by Belgian architect Paul Robbrecht, best known for the Concertgebouw in Bruges, the building is constructed from local stone and fine oak. Jacques admired Robbrecht’s pursuit of purity in architecture, a philosophy he felt mirrored his own approach to winemaking. The result, he says simply, is “simple but distinguished.”
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Above Alexandre Thienpont
Above Jacques Thienpont
Alexandre Thienpont
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Looking Ahead
The Thienpont story extends well beyond its two flagship estates. In 2010, Jacques acquired L’If, a neighbouring estate to Troplong Mondot in Saint-Émilion. Since then, the property has been further expanded with the acquisition of a one-hectare parcel adjoining the estate on the plateau. Named after the yew tree, a reflection of Jacques and Fiona’s love of nature, the estate has now come of age. Fifteen years on, the merlot and cabernet franc wines are earning growing acclaim, with the 2025 vintage awarded 97 points by Decanter.
Together with his sister Anne, Jacques also owns L’Hêtre in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. Acquired in 2016, the estate sits on limestone and clay soils planted with merlot and cabernet franc, producing wines that offer a more accessible introduction to the Thienpont style.
The family’s newest venture lies half a world away in Australia’s Adelaide Hills. Pocket Gully, acquired by Jacques and Fiona’s son Georges, will release its inaugural wine this year. Rather than signalling a departure from Bordeaux, the project suggests how the next generation may interpret the family’s philosophy beyond France. The objective, Jacques says, remains unchanged: to craft wines that are fresh, balanced, expressive and, above all, pleasurable to drink.
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Above Le Pin winery in Bordeaux
Above Vieux Chateau Certan barrels in Bordeaux
Le Pin winery in Bordeaux
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The transition is already well underway. Guillaume now leads Vieux Château Certan following Alexandre’s retirement, while Jacques and Fiona have stepped back from the day-to-day management of Domaines Jacques Thienpont to assume ambassadorial roles. A newly established family council will oversee the estates alongside managing director Vianney Gravereaux, with sons Georges and William increasingly involved in the business.
When I ask Fiona what she hopes the next generation will preserve, her answer is striking in its simplicity. Sustainability matters, she says, but so too does safeguarding the simple pleasure of drinking wine for generations to come.
For a family whose bottles command some of the wine world’s greatest attention, the Thienponts remain remarkably understated. Their enduring legacy lies not only in producing some of Bordeaux’s finest wines, but in the quiet conviction that elegance, patience and authenticity will always outlast spectacle.
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Images: Thienpont
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Nicola Lee, a graduate in Hospitality & Tourism Management, is the managing director of a property investment company. She is also a freelance wine and travel writer for The Singapore Business Times and Tatler Singapore, as well as a champagne enthusiast whose extensive collection has been featured on Channel NewsAsia’s ‘Remarkable Living (2019)’. A second-generation member of the Commanderie de Bordeaux, she is an ambassador for the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne in Singapore and academy chair (SEA South) for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
