Chateau La Conseillante

The history of Chateau La Conseillante started with Catherine Conseillan, a metal dealer based in Libourne. In the mid-18^th century Catherine established a vineyard between the communes of Pomerol and St-Emilion, evolving into the Conseillante estate today. Started off as a share-cropping project, by 1756 there were already wines produced and christened La Conseillante, and Catherine taking full control.

In the 1840s it was in the hands of Leperche-Princeteau family, and in 1871 it was sold to Louis Nicolas. The next generation, also of the same name, took the battle against phylloxera. He also established the Syndicat Viticole de Pomerol in 1900. Two generations succeeded before the estate came into the ownership of Bernard Nicolas, who ran the business with his brother Francis.

Bernard extensively refurbished the chai, engaging the services of Professor Emile Peynaud, replacing the ancient wooden vats with stainless steel. Today it is under the next generation, Bertrand Nicolas, who joined Marie-France Nicolas d’Arfeuille in running the estate, assisted by manager Jean-Michel Laporte.

The vineyard lies on the boundary between Pomerol and St-Emilion, and one of its neighbours is Cheval Blanc. The soils are a mix of clay (eastern section) and sandy gravel (western section). There are 12 hectares of vines, 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, planted at a desnity of 6000 vines per hectare, at average age of 32 years.

Harvest is manual, with the fruit sorted and machine-destemmed prior to cold maceration and fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The malolactic fermentation begins in vat prior to running off, with gentle pressing before the wine is finished off in barrels between 80-100% new. The wine is rested for up to 18 months with a racking every three month, fined with egg white prior to bottling without filtration.

Selection and blending is done while the wine is still in barrel, with the best lots going to the grand vin Chateau La Conseillante. The lesser go to the second wine Duo de Conseillante, which sees only 12 months in ageing in wood using older barrels. Total production amounts to 4500 cases with the second wine accounting for a small proportion.

I have recently tasted the 2007 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, this wine is of deep ruby color, with legs and a thin garnet rim.

Nose

Clean, the nose shows medium (+) intensity aromas of ripe black fruit such as blackberry, pungent spice of liquorice, oak notes of cedar, some under-ripeness notes of capsicum, kernel notes of chocolate, mineral notes of graphite, maturity notes of savory. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry with medium acidity, medium (+) tannin of ripe and a bit gripping in texture, the wine has medium alcohol and a medium (+) body, showing medium (+) intensity on flavors, including black fruit of blackberry, oak notes of cedar and vanilla, sweet spice of cloves. The wine has a medium finish.  

Conclusion

Good quality Pomerol with good concentration and complexity on the nose, though showing a bit of under-ripeness, the wine has a firm structure and fairly robust tannin, but with slightly gripping texture. On the palate the flavors are reasonably intense and fair on the length. Ready to drink now, the wine can benefit from further ageing of another 2-3 years.