Wine Advisor
La Conseillante 2000
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at Bordeaux Index’s 2000 tasting in London. This has a lifted, more extrovert (for 2000) bouquet with crisp wild strawberry, raspberry, cedar, graphite and a faint hint of Valrona chocolate. Very good definition, a crowd pleaser. The palate is medium-bodied with thick chewy tannins, good acidity, rather coarse and brutish at the moment but very good weight, perhaps at the expense of refinement towards the finish, though it gains more poise with another 10 minutes of aeration. Drink 2020-2040. Tasted March 2010.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
A tremendous effort, and certainly the best La Conseillante since the marvelous duo of 1989 and 1990, this deep ruby/plum/purple-colored wine offers up notes of blackberries and kirsch liqueur intermixed with licorice, incense, spice box, and copious amounts of toasty oak. It is a relatively powerful effort for La Conseillante, with more tannin and structure than most vintages possess. As the wine sits in the glass, black raspberries, blueberries, smoke along with floral notes emerge. There is tremendous purity, medium to full body, great precision and concentration. Unlike most vintages of La Conseillante, the 2000 will require patience. A bottle kept open refused to oxidize until day six! Anticipated maturity: 2008-2025.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at the La Conseillante vertical at Chez Bruce. The millennial La Conseillante sports an almost Burgundian bouquet with bilberry, iodine, black olive and blackberry dominating that beautifully defined aromatics that seem a little more tightly wound than I expected. The palate is medium-bodied with robust tannins rendering this a more masculine, uncompromising La Conseillante, whilst the sinewy finish needs a little more flesh that will develop as the wine softens and melts with age. What you might describe as a "rigid" Pomerol at the moment although it does soften with further aeration towards a silky, Richebourg-like finish. Tasted December 2010.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
From one of the finest terroirs of Pomerol, La Conseillante is surrounded by Cheval Blanc, Petrus, Vieux Chateau Certan, and l'Evangile ... not bad. The prodigious 2000 is one of the great wines of the vintage. It is structured, dense, concentrated, and powerful. An opaque purple color is followed by a tight but immensely promising nose of black raspberry liqueur intermixed with blueberries, cassis, licorice, and toasty new oak. There is stunning concentration and purity, high tannin for this estate, full body, and that layered, sweet mid-section that only comes from low yields and/or great vintages. One noticeable change from last year is additional structure and grip, and my anticipated maturity guess is premature. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2030.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
When first tasted en primeur this wine was already showing its sheer class. I summed up by declaring that is was a "A decadent La Conseillante in a similar vein to the 1982 or 1989. After an odd, oxidized bottle at the IMW tasting in Nov-04 a great bottle in January 2006. Like the 2001, the nose is stubborn and backward when first poured into glass. Develops a gamey quality with time. Again, the palate is backward and closed down, very tight but the concentration is obviously and unlike the 2003 it has better acidity. Blackberry lingers long after the wine is in spittoon. Excellent (but I prefer the 2001.)
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Despite the one errant bottle at the IMW tasting, this La Conseillante has always shown immense promise. Served at dinner at Chateau Clos-Fourtet, it has a deep black/garnet hue, almost opaque. The nose is very intense with notes of blackberry, black olives, a touch of game and minerals. Very good definition, better than I have experienced in the past. The palate is full-bodied with nigh perfect acidity and an underlying, almost sorbet-like freshness. This could only be a Pomerol. Great length with a lingering blackberry finish. Still backward, so I would cellar this for at least another decade. Outstanding. Drink 2015-2035. Tasted April 2007.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
La Conseillante made an excellent wine in 2001, another great one in 2005, and the estate hit home runs in both 2008 and, above all, in 2009. In fact, the latter vintage may well end up being the modern-day reference point for La Conseillante. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be said for this 2000. An elegant, gentle style that is never a blockbuster, the 2000 La Conseillante has a deep ruby/plum/purple color and an unbelievably expressive nose of sweet kirsch liqueur intermixed with raspberries, incense, toast, and licorice. Full-bodied yet ethereal in the sense that it seems to combine power along with eloquence and delicacy, this is a beautifully pure wine that has just hit its plateau of full maturity, although ideally I think it would benefit strongly from another 4-5 years of bottle age and drink well for two to three decades.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
La Conseillante's 2000 is a profound wine, revealing more concentration than usual. Undoubtedly a fine effort, it boasts a dense ruby/purple color in addition to a spectacular nose of smoke-infused black raspberries and kirsch liqueur. As the wine sits in the glass, the nose builds, offering explosive aromas of new wood, Asian spice, and an exotic hint of incense. Velvety-textured and gorgeously pure, with extraordinary levels of glycerin, low acidity, moderately high tannin, and a multi-tiered palate presence, this fabulous terroir has produced one of the vintage's legends. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2025.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Ex-cellar bottle tasted at Bordeaux Index’s Conseillante dinner at The Ledbury. This is a brilliant wine from La Conseillante. Approaching its tenth birthday, it still delivers a striking bouquet of intense bilberry, blackberry leaf, damson, iodine and graphite with hints of black olive developing in the glass and later that mineralite really coming through. The palate has firm, rigid tannins, more masculine than then 2001 with touches of graphite and leaving a prickle on the tongue, that sorbet like quality that one finds more often in Burgundy. Stunning. Drink 2013-2030+ Tasted December 2009.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2000 La Conseillante is much broodier than the previous two vintages, 1998 and 1999. This demands encouragement from the glass, eventually opening with blackberry, briary, black truffle and terracotta scents. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly “furry” tannin. It is not as precise as say, the 2005 or 2010. There is impressive weight here, a concentrated and broad-shouldered La Conseillante, but what is missing is the finesse and poise that more recent vintages have shown. I find the millennial La Conseillante more impressive in its youth, though now it is just looking a little heavy-handed. Tasted at La Conseillante vertical at the property.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Medium-deep ruby. Captivating, perfumed nose combines blackberry, licorice and violet; exotic and sweet. Thick and intensely flavored, with the strong violet and exotic spice character carrying through on the palate. Offers a very firm structure, no doubt largely due to the wine substantial cabernet franc component. Ripe tannins spread out to cover the entire palate. Offers outstanding potential. My sample of the '99 Conseillante was distinctly green.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2000 La Conseillante is much broodier than the previous two vintages, 1998 and 1999. This demands encouragement from the glass, eventually opening with blackberry, briary, black truffle and terracotta scents. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly “furry” tannin. It is not as precise as say, the 2005 or 2010. There is impressive weight here, a concentrated and broad-shouldered La Conseillante, but what is missing is the finesse and poise that more recent vintages have shown. I find the millennial La Conseillante more impressive in its youth, though now it is just looking a little heavy-handed. Tasted at La Conseillante vertical at the property.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
An incredibly subtle and sexy nose of perfume, flowers, red fruits, and sliced plums. Full-bodied, yet refined and silky. This is delicious and pretty, and just starting to open up with flavors of tobacco, cedar, and cigar box. No need to wait.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This is showing aromas of graphite, bitter chocolate, paprika and dried herbs. Turns to iodine, iron and chocolate. It’s firm and polished, with compact tannins. Shows focus and tension. Everything in the right place. Still so young. Drink or hold.
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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