Chateau La Conseillante, Pomerol 2009

At once deep and rich, yet cool and delicate with a minty freshness, this is a really concentrated and super-elegant Pomerol that's now very seductive, but has the structure and vitality to live for a long time. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)

The 2009 La Conseillante has a very classy and sophisticated bouquet with beautifully defined black and red fruit mixed with black truffle and pressed rose petals. The oak is just completely subsumed here. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe and saturated tannin, a fine line of acidity, fresh and tensile with a sense of mineralité on the finish. This bottle shows even better than the one poured at the property 12 months earlier. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.

The medium to deep garnet colored 2009 La Conseillante strides confidently out of the glass with very classy Black Forest cake, blueberry compote and kirsch scents plus suggestions of violets, liquid licorice, cardamom and bay leaves with a touch of eucalyptus. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is elegantly fruited with a firm, grainy frame and oodles of freshness, finishing long and minerally.

Similar in style to the 2015, the 2009 La Conseillante is another sexy, seductive, opulent even, Pomerol that offers a huge array of spiced dark fruits, cured meats, crushed flowers, and truffle. Deep, full-bodied, layered and beautifully pure, with an extroverted personality that just begs to be drunk, it will keep for another three decades or more.

The competition between the 2009, 2005 and 2000 La Conseillante will be interesting to follow over the next twenty years. There was more of a selection process at this estate in 2009 than there was in 2000, resulting in a beautiful Pomerol offering notes of mulberries, sweet cherries, spring flowers, raspberries and truffles.

The color is a healthy deep plum/ruby/purple and the wine is medium to full-bodied with silky tannins, a broad, layered mouthfeel and wonderful freshness as well as length. This gorgeous, complex, Burgundian-styled Pomerol will be drinkable in 4-6 years and should keep for 30-40. The 1970 is still alive and that was not nearly as well made as the 2009.)

Bright ruby-red. Knockout perfume of red berries, dark cherry, minerals, flowers, licorice, tobacco and tarragon, complemented by sexy sweet oak. Suave, glossy and silky, but given energy and lift by its cabernet franc component. Captivating vanilla, coconut and spice notes add complexity and lift to the vibrant fruit flavors. No excessive sweetness here. Still a baby but already boasts lovely early balance. Wonderfully smooth Pomerol with terrific finishing lift.

(81% merlot and 19% cabernet franc; 14.2% alcohol; pH 3.75) Bright, full red-ruby. Pure, penetrating aromas of black cherry, violet, licorice and minerals offer lovely perfumed lift. Then fresh, bright and sweet in the mouth, with a distinctly modern aspect to the pure, intense flavors of black cherry, bitter chocolate and flinty minerality. Very smoothly tannic and fine-grained, this remarkably polished and perfumed Pomerol finishes very long, with an airy lightness of touch and lingering mint and pepper nuances.