The winery is located on the Right Bank of the Bordeaux wine region, in the commune of Pomerol in the department Gironde.
As all wine produced in this appellation, Vieux Château Certan is unclassified, but the estate is long recognised as among the great growths of the region, and by some reckoned comparable to neighbouring estate Château Pétrus.
[4] Long estimated as the leading estate of the region, it yielded the position to the adjacent Pétrus in 1875.
[3] The estate was bought by the Belgian wine merchant Georges Thienpont in 1924, and it has remained within the family since.
The family diversified in 1979 when Marcel and Gérard Thienpont founded nearby microcuvée estate Château Le Pin.