Château LA CONSEILLANTE 2022

Description

Yves Beck 98-100 points www.yvesbeck.wine
D’entrée La Conseillante annonce de la complexité, de la subtilité. Certes on lui connaît cela depuis belle lurette, néanmoins La Conseillante tient à souligner que 2022 n’a pas été une souffrance, mais bien plus une évidente résilience, que ce soit au niveau de la plante, du terroir ou des femmes et des hommes qui sont à son écoute pour la mener vers des sphères qualitatives irréprochables. L’attaque est comparable à du velours. Et pourtant, il y a moult éléments, beaucoup de fraîcheur, de puissance, de tonus et d’énergie. Belle harmonie dans ce vin où chaque élément se place avec pertinence, avec précision. C’est en finale que tout se joue, là où La Conseillante parvient à relever le défi de la fraîcheur, de la tension et de la salinité qui n’étaient pas des options en cadeau en 2022. Il a fallu aller les chercher ! Un vin brillant de précision et de saveurs.  2029-2047

Georgina Hindle 98-100 points  www.decanter.com 
A sensational effort in 2022, utterly fabulous and one of my favourites. Smells ripe and potent, an air of opulence and richness, so perfumed and open with soft herbal and spiced elements. This wows on the palate, creamy tannins, rich but silky, so well integrated with cool, wet stone and blue fruit nuances and juicy acidity giving freshness. It manages to give with one hand and take away with the other, a supreme balancing act of providing the sumptuous power and concentration of the vintage but so delicately packaged with layers of energy, brightness and precision. Great movement and direction. Pure Pomerol power and pleasure on offer here, exciting and elegant and really feels like it’s not trying too hard. 5-6% press wine. 98-100 points.

William Kelley 97-100 points www.erobertparker.com
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.

Neal Martin 97-99 www.vinous.com
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.

Jeb Dunnuck 98-100 points www.jebdunnuck.com
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.

Jean-Marc Quarin 98 points www.quarin.com
Couleur sombre, intense et belle. Nez très aromatique, fin, fruité, mûr, subtil et complexe. Minutieux en entrée de bouche, très aromatique au milieu, avec de la classe dans le toucher, du corps, le vin progresse encore en finale, où il s’achève profond, long, sur des nuances de fruits noirs ; le tout avec une grande douceur délicieuse. Assemblage : 87 % merlot, 13 % cabernet franc. Degré d’alcool : 14° – pH : 3,6. Rendement : 33 hl/ha.

Antonio Galloni 96-98 www.vinous.com
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.