2009 Chateau La Conseillante Pomerol 750 ml

Pomerol Par Excellence: 2009 Château La Conseillante

By now, nearly all of the voluptuous 2009s from Bordeaux’s Right and Left Banks have long disappeared, but we keep trying to turn them up, anyway. Here’s why.

The vintage report that Robert Parker published on April 26, 2010, reverberated around the wine world like a neutron bomb. The most influential wine critic of our age called 2009 “the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux.” Comparing the 2009 crop to four of the most extraordinary vintages of the last 120 years (1899, 1929, 1949, 1959), Parker declared: “The peaks in quality in 2009 may turn out to be historic.” And so it has been. Wine Spectator added its own entry to the history books with 96-99 points for the vintage.

The warm and dry summer of 2009 made for some of the most extravagantly opulent and ultra-concentrated Pomerols in decades, bursting with black-fruit plushness and sumptuous tannin structure. That’s just not the kind of year you give up on easily.

So when we learned that a case — make that 10 cases! — of the 2009 La Conseillante were available, we pounced. Château La Conseillante is one of the most heralded estates in all of Bordeaux. On the Pomerol plateau, it is surrounded by superstars — with Petrus, Cheval Blanc, and Vieux Château Certan among its immediate neighbors — but even if it is a “super second,” it takes a back seat to NONE.

In his rhapsodic review, Robert Parker compared this 2009 to the “stunning” and “glorious” 1970, especially in its cellar potential, saying it “should keep for 30-40. (The 1970 is still alive and that was not nearly as well made as the 2009.)” Parker looked forward to two decades of competition between this “gorgeous,” “complex” 2009 La Conseillante and its rivals from 2005 (97 points) and 2000 (96). Should we be so lucky to be around in 20 years, count us in, too.

The Nicholas family has presided over Château La Conseillante for almost a century and a half. They know this soil, predominantly clay with some gravel on top of iron dross, and replant to keep their vines at an average age of 30 years. Some 80% of the vineyards are planted to Merlot, Pomerol’s superstar grape, with the other 20% planted to Cabernet Franc, firming up the structure of Château La Conseillante’s beloved wines.

The 2009 Château La Conseillante Pomerol is deep ruby in the glass. Lavish black-fruit aromas tinged with violets and spices. Silky soft on entry, but buoyant and surprisingly fresh. Powerful and precise flavors of black cherries and black raspberries mingle with subtle earthy notes. Impeccably fine-grained tannins give way to a finish of seemingly infinite length — a real stunner.

97 points from James Suckling. Another 96 from Parker. $265/bottle. Only 120 bottles. If you’re holding out for a better Pomerol with 97- and 96-point scores from the legendary 2009 vintage at a better price, by all means, keep waiting. We’ll be toasting your error in 10, 20, and if we’re lucky to live that long, even 30 years with other WineAccess members who heard opportunity knocking this time.