Wine Advisor
La Conseillante 1983
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
This wine needs to be consumed as it is evolving at an advanced pace. I have enjoyed it many times and it has been one of my favorite La Conseillantes for present consumption. However, over the last year I have noticed that it is taking on more amber at the edge and is becoming more diffuse. The color is a medium ruby/purple with noticeable orange at the edge. The huge, smoky, herbal, licorice, and black-raspberry-scented nose is well-developed and alluring. The flavors are soft and luscious in this medium-bodied, silky smooth wine. However, having consumed it regularly, I sense a slight tough edge emerging, suggesting it may be just beginning to fade. In magnums, this wine is probably even more stunningly perfumed and delicious, but if you have it in regular bottles, I would plan to drink it over the next 5 or so years. Last tasted, 7/93.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at the La Conseillante vertical at Chez Bruce. The Chateau La Conseillante '83 has a dry, rather mean cigar box and smoke-scented bouquet that patently lacks fruit intensity due to its age. The palate is medium-bodied with brusque dry tannins, very masculine, a little austere with a hard, rather drying finish. It has a little weight and presence in the mouth, but that almost counts against it. Tasted December 2010.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
This wine is approaching the end of its useful life. The wine still has La Conseillante’s aromatic fireworks (cedar, cigar smoke, Provencal herbs, pepper, licorice, and some decaying vegetation). However, considerable amber is at the edge of the wine, and the wine exhibits low acidity, some rather nasty tannins in the finish, and fades very quickly in the glass. It has been fully mature since the late eighties and, unless it is coming from large format bottles, needs to be drunk up immediately. Anticipated maturity: Now. Last tasted, 4/02.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
This wine possesses a 90-point bouquet and 85-point flavors. It has been fully mature for a number of years and should be drunk up. Considerable amber and rust are creeping in at the edges. The sweet, jammy nose exhibits a distinctive floral, truffle, black cherry, earthy, smoky personality that soars from the glass. In the mouth, the wine's acidity and tannin are beginning to poke their way through the wine's flesh. A streak of herbaceousness has gotten stronger as the wine has aged, but it is a round, sexy, fully mature La Conseillante that needs to be consumed. Anticipated maturity: Now. Last tasted 11/97
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 1983 La Conseillante is perhaps a wine that should be forgotten and when tasted blind I actually preferred the 1984 La Conseillante! It is brusque and dry, devoid of sufficient fruit and large formats from exceptional provenance apart, it is a vintage that ought to have been consumed long ago. Tasted at a private dinner in London.
About the Producer
Chateau La Conseillante is located in the Pomerol appellation on the right bank of Bordeaux, France, next to Vieux Chateau Certan and Chateau L'Evangile, and is one of the best châteaux in Pomerol. The vineyard covers an area of 11.8 hectares with a topsoil of 60% grey clay and 40% gravel and a subsoil of red clay rich in iron. The vineyard is planted with 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The Merlot is planted mainly on clay plots, while the Cabernet Franc is planted mainly on gravel. The average age of the vines is 35 years and the planting density is 7,000 vines per hectare. The winery uses traditional vineyard management practices, eliminating the use of herbicides. During the growing season, the land is usually plowed four times to suppress weed growth and thus obtain more water for the vines. In the winter, the vines are pruned in a strict Simple Guyot and Double Guyot style. In addition, the vineyards are de-leafed and de-budded to keep yields at around 4,000 liters per hectare. At harvest time, the grapes are hand-picked to their optimum ripeness and a preliminary selection is carried out. Once the selection is complete, the grapes are transported in small batches to the winery to prevent crushing of the fruit. The winery is located in the heart of the vineyard, which shortens the transportation time and ensures that the grapes are fresh and ready for fermentation. In 2012, the winery added a new fermentation room with enough temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to ferment the grapes from each of the 18 plots separately, combining traditional winemaking techniques with modern technology. In addition, the winery now has four sorting tables and a de-stemmer. After being transferred to barrels, the grapes undergo a cold maceration of 48 to 96 hours. After maceration, the must is fermented in barrels with the skins for 1 week, followed by a further 1 to 2 weeks of maceration. At the end of fermentation, some of the artesian wine is released first and the remaining lees are pressed through a vertical press. The pressed wines are aged separately, and only some of the best pressed wines are blended with the artesian wines. Before bottling, the wines are matured in oak barrels for approximately 18 months, 50% to 80% of which are new. During maturation, the wines are decanted by the winemakers every three months and finally clarified with egg whites.
1961(1)1973(1)
Package Size
