Château La Conseillante 2023

Critic scores

• Wine Advocate100
• James Suckling98
• Decanter98
• Vinous97
• Jeb Dunnuck97

The 2023 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 92/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Mildew cost a good share of the harvest; what was brought in is early, fresh and promising.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

An unclassifiable vintage, 2023 brilliantly follows a dazzling 2022, which placed all the cursors quite high, while playing on a different and unexpected register. It is a wine of great concentration, with fresh maturity, combining gourmandise, delicacy, softness in its definition and a texture with a juicy character. This is a vintage of balance and harmony, whose aromatic brilliance, on the invigorating black fruit, is adorned with an undeniable elegance. After 2019, 2020 and 2022, it joins the family of great recent Bordeaux vintages.

Blend of the 2023 vintage

Merlot(88%), Cabernet franc(12%)

Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2023 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with merlot, cabernet franc.

Figures from the 2023 sheet

• 14 % vol.Alcohol
• 43 hl/haYield

Ageing

70% maturing in new barrels, 27% maturing in traditional barrels, 3% maturing in amphorae.

Terroir

The pattern of plots making up the property's 12 hectares, unchanged since 1871, allows La Conseillante to maintain its exceptional character. An average density of six thousand vines per hectare, constant attention and care adapted to the cultivation of the vine — the only guarantees of impeccable vine health — are a reminder that without quality fruit, wine is nothing. The terroir is composed of 60% grey clay and 40% sandy gravel, resting on red clay (crasse de fer).