Winemaker Notes
The 2009 La Conseillante had the special quality of tasting amazingly well right from the beginning. The distinctive characteristic of this vintage is its silky texture and very early integration of tannins on the palate. Though very powerful, there is no sensation of dryness or astringency, making the wine impossible to spit out when tasting.
The wine also has great aromatic expression, revealing black fruits mingling with violets, liquorice and fresh almonds, together with wonderful balance and exceptional length on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Beautifully ripe plum colour here, this has an opulent texture with creamy fruit and cigar box, with a confident interplay between ripe generous fruits, soft-spoken tannins and teasing acidity that allows for a mint-infused mouthwatering finish. Clear mid palate expansion here also, filling the mouth with seductive Pomerol flesh. 100% new oak. Drinking Window 2021 - 2042.
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James Suckling
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.
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Jeb Dunnuck
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.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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.
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Wine Spectator
This delivers stunning toasted spice, mocha and black tea aromas, while the core of plum, blackberry and fig flavors is still rather reticent. The long finish is liberally laced with a racy graphite note, while the perfumy accent pervades. This will be a suave head-turner when it rounds into form. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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Wine Enthusiast
Densely rich, very sweet wine. It has some smoky tannins that give structure, along with a dark core of dry raisin and wood flavors. It has concentration and an opaque texture.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
A source of exceptionally sensual and glamorous red wines, Pomerol is actually a rather small appellation in an unassuming countryside. It sits on a plateau immediately northeast of the city of Libourne on the right bank of the Dordogne River. Pomerol and St-Émilion are the stars of what is referred to as Right Bank Bordeaux: Merlot-dominant red blends completed by various amounts of Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. While Pomerol has no official classification system, its best wines are some of the world’s most sought after.
Historically Pomerol attached itself to the larger and more picturesque neighboring region of St-Émilion until the late 1800s when discerning French consumers began to recognize the quality and distinction of Pomerol on its own. Its popularity spread to northern Europe in the early 1900s.
After some notable vintages of the 1940s, the Pomerol producer, Petrus, began to achieve great international attention and brought widespread recognition to the appellation. Its subsequent distribution by the successful Libourne merchant, Jean-Pierre Mouiex, magnified Pomerol's fame after the Second World War.
Perfect for Merlot, the soils of Pomerol—clay on top of well-drained subsoil—help to create wines capable of displaying an unprecedented concentration of color and flavor.
The best Pomerol wines will be intensely hued, with qualities of fresh wild berries, dried fig or concentrated black plum preserves. Aromas may be of forest floor, sifted cocoa powder, anise, exotic spice or toasted sugar and will have a silky, smooth but intense texture.