2025 La Conseillante (Pomerol)

The 2025 La Conseillante is shaping up to be magnificent. Rich and luscious in the glass, the 2025 offers up an exotic melange of inky dark fruit, cloves, new leather, licorice and mocha. This is the first vintage that sees the return of Cabernet Sauvignon, historically a part of the blend from at least 1871 to 1956, when frost devastated many vineyards in Pomerol. The 2025 is impressively deep, but also quite vibrant. I can`t wait to see how it ages. It`s a superb effort from Technical Director Marielle Cazaux and her team. Cazaux made an immediate impact when she arrived in 2015, starting with a move to lower-intervention farming that was immediately apparent. I will have more to say about that and other related subjects in a separate article we will publish later in the year. Tasted two times. 96-98 points

The 2025 La Conseillante is another brilliant wine in the making for this Pomerol reference point. Wafting from the glass with aromas of ripe mulberries and blackberries mingled with hints of violets and truffle, it`s medium- to full-bodied, deep and unctuous, with lively acids, ultra-refined tannins and a long, floral finish. It`s a blend of 87% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon (from new plantings that already make it into the blend) that attained 13.5% alcohol. Fermentations were capped at 26 degrees Celsius, the coolest ever, to extract selectively, and the entire production is maturing in barriques this year. 97-100 points

Austere on the opening, takes a beat then shows a creamy character as it opens. In colour, like so many you will find a vivid ink, followed by traces of gourmet cocoa bean, damson, chalk, rose petal, slate and crayon. Clay and gravel soils here have been worked organically and biodynamically for many years, 70% new oak for ageing, 3.66ph. Overall harvest August 28 to September 17. 30hl/h yield. Marielle Cazeaux director. A clear contender for an upscore in bottle. 95 points

The 2025 La Conseillante was cropped at 30 hl/ha and is matured in 70% new oak barrels, there are no amphoras this year as Marielle Cazaux felt the wine needed the micro-oxygenation. It has a very pure nose with black cherries, blueberry and wild strawberry fruit, just a little Burgundy-like in style. A hint of orange rind loiters in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins, a silver thread of acidity, quite linear and strict on the entry, gentle grip with a dash of black pepper towards the finish. A second glass that happened to have been opened for an hour revealed some of its opulence that will surely be enhanced during the elevage. It will deserve four to five years in bottle but will have a long life ahead and will give a lot of pleasure. 95-97 points