Wine Advisor
La Conseillante 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 La Conseillante, a blend of 81% Merlot and 19% Cabernet Franc, is extraordinarily pure and elegant on the nose. Here, I find a little more red fruit than black fruit, extremely elegant and articulating the terroir with great clarity. At first, wild strawberry and cranberry, then crushed stone, a touch of black truffle and tobacco. The palate is medium-bodied, fresh and elegant with fine tannin on the entry. This is one of the most approachable La Conseillante wines that I have tasted in barrel, the acidity very well judged, "classic" in style, good backbone here with a structured finish. It does not quite possess the bravura of the 2010 La Conseillante and I would agree with winemaker Marielle Cazaux that it bears more semblances to the 2005 La Conseillante at this stage, and even bore common traits with its neighbour, Vieux Château Certan. This is an intellectual and to put it prosaically, "delicious" La Conseillante.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 La Conseillante has a sophisticated bouquet with pure, mineral-driven red fruit laced with truffle and minerals. There is a subtle floral tincture to this La Conseillante, quite feminine and almost understated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, very harmonious and supple in the mouth yet there is a superb structure underneath, while the finish feels pixelated. There is a faint semblance to the 2016 Clinet this year, although I suspect this will need longer to reach its peak. This is a great wine from winemaker Marielle Cazaux.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Newly-arrived Technical Director Marielle Cazaux turned out a jewel of a wine at La Conseillante in 2015, her debut vintage. A polished and super-sophisticated Pomerol, La Conseillante is all class. Precise, lifted aromatics make a strong first impression, but it is the wine's overall feel and sense of harmony that truly dazzle. Over the last two years, the 2015 seems to have gained in freshness, precision and nuance. What a wine! The blend is 81% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc. Don't' miss it.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
A total knockout, the 2015 La Conseillante possesses stunning depth, nuance and complexity. Soaring aromatics meld into a core of dark-fleshed stone fruits, with hints of mocha, crème de cassis, menthol, violets and dark spices that develop in the glass. The 2015 is not an obvious wine, but it is exceptionally beautiful. The blend is 81% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc. Don’t' miss it.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 La Conseillante has a refined bouquet with red currant, wild strawberry and rose petal aromas, beautifully defined and unfurling in the glass. A hint of black truffle emerges with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple black cherry fruit, cassis and boysenberry. Quite slick toward the finish suggesting a little more extraction than its peers that smothers the mineralité I noted in the vertical last spring. But it is supremely well balanced and it should mature with style. I have encountered better bottles but it remains a great Pomerol. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 La Conseillante has a refined but quite intense bouquet that is very well defined, scents of cranberry and wild strawberry, cold wet stone, hints of black truffle that emerge with aeration. The purity here is only bettered by the 2010. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, a superb thread of acidity, beautifully balanced with a silky smooth texture that disguises the backbone of this Pomerol. There is exquisite detail here, the mineralité and tension flourishing on the sustained finish, to complete a fabulous La Conseillante that will give many years of pleasure. Tasted at La Conseillante vertical at the property.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Composed of 81% Merlot and 19% Cabernet Franc and aged for 18 months in 70% new and 30% one-year-old French oak, the medium garnet-purple colored 2015 La Conseillante opens with reticent, earthy notes of dusty soil, garrigue, forest floor and iron ore with a core of warm plums, cassis, cigar boxes, star anise and dark chocolate plus a hint of violets. Medium to full-bodied with decadent fruit and a gorgeous plushness to the texture, the palate features impeccable poise and compelling depth, finishing on a lingering mineral note.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This is the most powerful La Conseillante I have tasted with lots of muscle and intensity. Full and savory. Chewy. Agile and formed. Beautiful ripe fruit in the center palate. This is a little pushed to the limit like the great Conseillants of the 1960s and 1970s.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Aromas of tar, black olive skin and blackberries follow through to a full body. Ultra-fine tannins and a long, linear finish with super intensity. Well-crafted in every sense. A fabulous Pomerol for the future. Try in 2022.
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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