The 2005 La Conseillante is about to be uncorked

[Comte Flaneur]

A pulchritudinous object:

[Dionysus]

It's been a while since I've had to pull out the dictionary, yet here we are.

There's a lot of empty bottles on view...the new Rudy?!?

[OrlandoRobert]

A pulchritudinous object:


CB2651FD-32B8-40C7-99D5-678A09267174.jpeg

An oddly incongruous word to mean “beautiful”!

[JimHow]

I once told an old girlfriend that she was pulchritudinous. She thought I was calling her a slut.

[OrlandoRobert]

I once told an old girlfriend that she was pulchritudinous. She thought I was calling her a slut.

It’s all in the delivery, Jimbo

[JoelD]

Curious to hear how this bottle is compared to the last. Didn't you say these should lay down for a Blanquito or two?

[marcs]

All this Conseillante talk has made you thirsty, huh

Have had some excellent bottles of this in the past. Per multiple recent CT notes it might now be in a shut down phase.

[Comte Flaneur]

Curious to hear how this bottle is compared to the last. Didn't you say these should lay down for a Blanquito or two?

Yes I think I probably did Joel, but I am giving this a lot more air time and decanting rigmarole. And it is nine years older than the 2014 La Conseillante. Plus it was winking at me in a lascivious manner.

[JoelD]

Curious to hear how this bottle is compared to the last. Didn't you say these should lay down for a Blanquito or two?

Yes I think I probably did Joel, but I am giving this a lot more air time and decanting rigmarole. And it is nine years older than the 2014 La Conseillante. Plus it was winking at me in a lascivious manner.

Beautiful concubines tend to do that. The 83 VCC has been winking at me in that way for a while, but i've been holding off to open with a BWEer.

Curious to hear the amount of decanting and the outcome. The 2010 showed amazingly well as a pnp at the Thursday dinner. Still not ready b but very accessible.

[Comte Flaneur]

It has seductive charms including a beguilingly seductive nose of plums and truffles, with hints of tobacco and cigar box, and bright red fruits, and plenty else going on, this wine is still nevertheless finding its feet, with a strong backbone of tannin, and with fine structure which promises a long life ahead. As Joel suggested another Blanquito is desirable…I suspect it will be magnificent in 5-10 years.

[Comte Flaneur]

After I just posted it has started to put on a bit of a show, as if it is teasing me. It is developing a lot more complexity now, which is hard to articulate but includes saddle leather in addition to all the truffly and plummy and now herby and menthol notes.

[Blanquito]

Sounds wonderful.

I bought heaps of 05 bordeaux on futures, which you know and by and large I don’t regret it, but I mostly concentrated on the Medoc which was more my comfort zone at that time. Wish I had instead loaded on right bank classical producers.

[Nicklasss]

Nice report Comte.

La Conseillante and 2005 can just be an excellent match. The complexity you're describing is very linked to the producer. I guess this 2005 will blossom even more in 5-10 years, but with air, looks like my kind of Pomerol already.

Nic

[JoelD]

Sounds like a fantastic wine and a lot bigger than the 2000 which I love. Would you compare it at all to the 89, 90 or 00 when at similar bottle age?

Also how long/what method of aeration did you do?

[marcs]

Sounds wonderful.

I bought heaps of 05 bordeaux on futures, which you know and by and large I don’t regret it, but I mostly concentrated on the Medoc which was more my comfort zone at that time. Wish I had instead loaded on right bank classical producers.

I don't think you messed up. Right bank 2005 is an absolute mine field. Conseillante was a home run but many producers fouled out. Sure, you can always wish you loaded up on a wine that in retrospect is great, but you can say that about any vintage.

[Comte Flaneur]

Sounds like a fantastic wine and a lot bigger than the 2000 which I love. Would you compare it at all to the 89, 90 or 00 when at similar bottle age?

Also how long/what method of aeration did you do?

Yes that’s right Joel it is a big wine. I had it on my list after a Farr Vintners tasting rated it the wine of the right bank in 2005. But I somehow doubt it.
I have little experience with the 2000 but would love to try one after your experience in DC a couple of months ago and after tasting the 2000 Figeac recently, which really rocked my boat.
Is the 2005 like the 1989 and 1990 at a similar stage? Absolutely not. The 1989 and 1990 have been gorgeous magical wines from the get go til today. They drank beautifully literally on day one. Magical wines, a magic that the 2005 does not possess.
I think La Conseillante lost its innocence and magic after the 1980s. The more modern wines are quite clunky and clinical by comparison and take a lot longer to come round.The 1995 for example is not ready and good wines like the 1998, 2001 and 2006 also need more time.
Perhaps the wine which comes closest to replicating those magical wines from the 1980s is the 2012, while the 2010 and 2016 are very great wines.
Much as I adore the 1989 and 1990, especially the latter, I think my favourite Conseillante is the 1982. I have one left and it pains me to think when I might broach it and with whom? I haven’t had the 1985 for quite a while and similarly have one left. The other one which really impressed me was the 1986 which Tim brought to London from Paris a few years ago.
Getting back to the 2005 I am not going to touch one for at least five years. Right now I would give it something like 94 points, with potential for a bit higher, but it is not say a 98 pointer.
I decanted the wine into a wide bell-bottomed decanter approx four hours before drinking it.

[Musigny 151]

We went to Bordeaux for the en Primeur campaign. The vintage had been hyped, and there were great expectations. The first tasting was the massive Right Bank (Rive Droite) and I have to say we were disappointed. The wines were minor players of Pomerol, Saint Emilion and their satellites.

This was the time where cutting yields and extraction were fashionable, and most of the wines there were a bloody mess. We left shaking our heads and wondering what the fuss was about. A few days later, we hit the Right Bank, and we were able to taste the grander wines. They were a revelation. Petrus and Trotanoy were superb, but Lafleur just pipped them. This was the vintage that started my love affair with VCC, my top wine. Both L’Evangile and Conseillante were solid, but not profound.

My wine of the vintage was Ausone, the only one with a potential for 100 points. I was planning to buy some until the four figure price came out. Cheval, Figeac were also sublime, Pavie not to my taste, but Angelus had some good complexity and freshness.

So to Marc’s point, 2005 can be a “minefield” but only for those who tried to overextract. This was the vintage, where the wines needed easy winemaking, and were happy to express themselves. But they are on the edge; push and you won’t like what you get.

[OrlandoRobert]

Sounds wonderful.

I bought heaps of 05 bordeaux on futures, which you know and by and large I don’t regret it, but I mostly concentrated on the Medoc which was more my comfort zone at that time. Wish I had instead loaded on right bank classical producers.

I don't think you messed up. Right bank 2005 is an absolute mine field. Conseillante was a home run but many producers fouled out. Sure, you can always wish you loaded up on a wine that in retrospect is great, but you can say that about any vintage.

I agree with this wholeheartedly as it pertains to St Emilion. That region in 2005 is a disaster and this is where Parker truly jumped the shark. His recommendations and high ratings have been terrible. Like a fool way back then, I bought tons of these “gems” and have since gotten rid of all of them. And then stopped buying much at all from that Rollandized, Parkerized appellation. I have tasted them at multiple periods of their evolution, some flat out got worse after release. I bought many of these St Ems as well from the 00 and 03 vintages. They have all been disposed as well. My dad loved them! He’s 82 and his tastebuds are shot.

I think Pomerol has some gems.

[DavidG]

LOL same here. I benefited much more than I lost by following Parker, but there were 3 times I got burned:
1998 Barossa Shiraz
2005 St. Emilion
2007 Chateauneuf

The Shiraz and Chateauneuf I got rid of. Really couldn’t stand the stuff.

I still have about a case of the St Ems and am occasionally in the mood for that style.

[Blanquito]

Wow, 07 CdP. There have been misses, but yeah, 07 Chateauneuf was for me the worst…

In saying I wish I could go back to the 05 futures campaign to buy Right Bank, I’m cheating really. I hadn’t really discovered Magdelaine and Canon yet, nor was Figeac all that high on my internal gyroscope, and I would have loaded up on all three and a bunch of Pomerol.

[OrlandoRobert]

Yea 2007 CDP was a worse minefield. And there you had Cambie and Parker influences. Got rid of those, too.

[Musigny 151]

I once told an old girlfriend that she was pulchritudinous. She thought I was calling her a slut.

God, when will they start teaching Latin again?