Wine Advisor
La Conseillante 1994
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
One of Bordeaux's most compellingly seductive wines, La Conseillante's early charm can lead tasters to believe that the wine will not age. However, top vintages of La Conseillante can age for two decades, but they are often drunk immediately after bottling because of their expressive aromatics, velvety texture, and delicious fruit. Dark ruby/garnet, with a backward, spicy, peppery, black fruit-scented nose (also truffles?), La Conseillante's tell-tale sweet, charming, alluring fruit is pushed to the background by the 1994's tannin and austerity. The wine reveals more weight than the 1993, but also more structure. There is good fruit under the tannin, but the 1994, atypically for La Conseillante, requires another 1-3 years of cellaring; it should keep for 10-12.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Aromatics merit a higher score in this dark ruby/garnet wine, which has a big, spicy, herbal, cedary nose with hints of pepper, sweet raspberries, and black cherries. The wine is medium-bodied but slightly austere in the finish, no doubt because the tannins in the 1994 never achieved full phenolic maturity. Nevertheless, there is a lot to like in the wine, and with the right food, this wine will probably drink better than my conservative score suggests. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010. Last tasted, 4/02.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
La Conseillante's 1994 is typical of so many wines from this estate - round, seductive, complex, and elegant, with plenty of black-raspberry and vanilla-tinged aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, with surprisingly evolved aromatics and flavors, this is an excellent, undeniably alluring style of La Conseillante that will require drinking during its first 6-8 years of life. This wine's hallmark is generally its silky forwardness, but I would like to have seen more depth and intensity in the 1994. All of the wines in this segment were tasted between March 19 and March 28 in Bordeaux. Most of the important wines from both the 1994 and 1995 vintages were tasted three separate times during my ten-day stay in Bordeaux.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Although the 1994 is a classic La Conseillante, it is not as concentrated as the 1990 or 1989. The 1994 exhibits a deep, dark ruby/purple color, this estate's tell-tale floral, black-raspberry, vanillin-scented nose, a velvety-textured, rich, medium-bodied palate, and considerable finesse, ripeness, and delicacy, in addition to a silky smooth finish. Tasted three times, La Conseillante's 1994 was nearly impossible to spit out because of its seductive, fragrant personality. This wine will be drinkable when released, and it should age well for 15 or more years.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
One of Bordeaux's most compellingly seductive wines, La Conseillante's early charm can lead tasters to believe that the wine will not age. However, top vintages of La Conseillante can age for two decades, but they are often drunk immediately after bottling because of their expressive aromatics, velvety texture, and delicious fruit. Dark ruby/garnet, with a backward, spicy, peppery, black fruit-scented nose (also truffles?), La Conseillante's tell-tale sweet, charming, alluring fruit is pushed to the background by the 1994's tannin and austerity. The wine reveals more weight than the 1993, but also more structure. There is good fruit under the tannin, but the 1994, atypically for La Conseillante, requires another 1-3 years of cellaring; it should keep for 10-12.
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.
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