2009 Château La Conseillante

Creamy, deep, textured and nuanced, and after 12 years the terroir is stepping up and taking control. Soft leather notes, tobacco, soot, crème caramel, raspberry and soft strawberry puree. This is pretty much ready to drink, opulent and impressive but a little more evolved than other 2009 Pomerols that I have tasted recently. It may be bottle variation,but I would definitely suggest enjoying the exuberance of this in the next 5 to 10 years and leave the 2010 for the real time in the cellar. 100% new oak. Harvest September 14 to 38.

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. (NM)