Appellations

Conseillante 2022

Pomerol

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Tasting Notes

A wine that has perfection written all over it is the 2022 Chateau La Conseillante, which is 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc that’s still resting in 70% new French oak, with a tiny amount in amphora as well. Revealing a vivid purple hue, it offers a perfumed yet incredibly classy, almost discreet bouquet of crème de cassis, spring flowers, red plums, incense, and spice. This terroir never seems to yield the biggest, richest wine in a vintage, yet it's almost unrivaled in its ability to deliver complexity and elegance. Full-bodied on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins, flawless balance, and again, a purity of fruit that's just about off the charts, it's going to offer pleasure with just 4-6 years of bottle age (these usually enter their prime drinking window a decade after a vintage) and have 30-40 years of prime drinking. The 2022 hit 13.9% alcohol with a pH of 3.65.

Score: 98 - 100 Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com Date: 05 October 2023

The 2022 La Conseillante was picked at 33hL/ha between 5 and 20 September and raised in 70% new oak plus 30% in amphorae. There is 13.9% alcohol. This is quite discrete on the nose, just like L'Évangile, only really opening after several minutes. Blackberry, blueberry, hints of iris flower, perhaps more floral than L'Évangile and Cheval Blanc. The palate is medium-bodied with velvety tannins plus a fine bead of acidity. Fresh and focused, this is maybe less concentrated on the mid-palate than expected but that maintains an unerring sense of equilibrium. Tensile and very smooth with an underlying sense of strict like its aforementioned neighbors. A rough decant prizes this Pomerol open and reveals its inner core of mineralité. Anyone spending less than 15 minutes tasting this Pomerol is likely to have totally missed it. Saline both on the finish and aftertaste, Marielle Cazaux has crafted one of the most intellectual La Conseillante wines in recent years.

Score: 97 - 99 Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2030-2065 Date: 16 May 2023

The 2022 La Conseillante is simply fabulous and also clearly one of the wines of the year. Rich, racy and enveloping to the core, the 2022 is super-impressive in this tasting. In fact, the 2022 is one of the best recent vintages I can remember tasting. All the elements are so well balanced for a young wine. Readers will find a Pomerol of stature and total class. That’s all there is to it. The blend is 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc. Yields were 33 hectoliters per hectare, about normal these days. For readers who appreciate technical data, the balance of 14% alcohol and 3.66pH is an example of what makes the best wines of 2022 so compelling. This is a superb showing from Technical Director Marielle Cazaux and her team.

Score: 96 - 98 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com Maturity: 2032-2052 Date: 09 May 2023

The 2022 La Conseillante is a remarkable wine that has the potential to emerge as one of the wines of the vintage. A blend of 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc, it unfurls in the glass with deep aromas of black raspberries and mulberries mingled with notions of rose petals, violets, orange zest and mint. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's velvety and enveloping, with a textural attack that segues into a multidimensional mid-palate that's framed by sweet, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, saline finish. Checking in at a very healthy pH of 3.65 and 14% alcohol, it is a beautifully supple, suave wine that retains all this estate's signature elegance but in a slightly deeper-pitched and broader-shouldered format than the profound 2020. Congratulations to winemaker Marielle Cazaux, consulting enologist Thomas Duclos, the Nicolas family led by Jean-Valmy, and all the team at La Conseillante who have firmly established this estate at the very top of Pomerol's qualitative hierarchy in recent vintages.

Score: 97 - 100 William Kelley, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Date: 28 April 2023

Deep inky colour, crushed rose petal and peony, such a beautiful wine, with waves of blueberry and cassis fruit, along with liqourice root, lemongrass, slate and saffran, and one of the clear standout successes of Pomerol. 95% 1st wine this year, with just 5% for Duo de La Conseillante. Slow progress through the palate, this has vintage character but leans into it. 70% new oak, 3.65ph. Harvest 5 to 20.

Score: 97 Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Date: 24 April 2023

This is sensational with extra fine tannins that run the length of the wine. It’s medium-bodied with excellent length and so Conseillante in nature. Silky, silky, silky. Creamy texture. Flowers such as violets at the end. Love this. 87% merlot and 13% cabernet franc.

Score: 98 - 99 James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Date: 13 April 2023