PSA - Uovo / Cellar trading just got a stash of '12 la Fleur-Petrus in for $175, ~25% less than other US retail.
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Fun idea- sorry I missed it!
2012 Pomerols are wonderful- it is the last great classic vintage of La Conseillante before the meddling began.
Great note on L’Evangile Todd. I share your enthusiasm.
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Yup. Same with Figeac.
Now that said, I think @Craig_G I suggested that the changes have not been that significant, Craig? I will acknowledge that I did not buy any Conseillante after Rolland got involved, except for 2014. Same with Figeac.
Perfection!
This meddling has taken the wine from 14% alcohol in 2012 to 14% in 2022, and new oak from 70% in 2012 to 70% in 2022. Scandalous 
I had a few concerns about the 2014 (seemed a little oaky) but re-reading my notes I see that the earliest one was great, so I’m wondering if the later ones were just in a more awkward place. In any case, all the Marielle Cazaux wines (2015 was her first) I’ve tasted, I’ve really liked. She called out 2005 and 1985 as two favorites which made me very happy, as the 1985 has generally been my favorite La Conseillante.
I’d recommend trying the 2023 when it shows up. I haven’t had it but I’m very optimistic.
As for Figeac, the 2019 was the best young Bordeaux I’ve ever had. I think there is a genuine style change there, which is bad for people who didn’t want Figeac to be as good as Cheval Blanc 
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The meddling has clearly done something as now all of a sudden this wine keeps getting hundred points from the big modernist critics, you know of whom I speak!
I looked in my cellar, and found I don’t have a single bottle of 2012 Pomerol. I was so ashamed.
But you have pre-Phylloxera stuff!!
I grabbed a case at an HDH auction last December because it’s my eldest’s birth year and I have been infatuated with L’Eglise Clinet for the last 4-5 years. I’m not 100 points on it, but it was very good.
3/26/2026 rated 94 points: We took this to our burger place with our favorite bartender, I hope that’s not sacrilege. We had it decanted while we had cocktails and a salad. It was on initial decant, a little closed off, with oak dulling the other notes. When we got to it about 30 minutes later, it had begun to open up and show it’s dark berry fruit with floral hints. There was a cool mineral underpinning which I saw someone else call “carbon minerality”. I like that because I think it captures the Cabernet Franc influence here. There are also notes of cocoa and tobacco with firm, but not harsh, tannins. I think the wine still has room to grow, so probably won’t try another for 3-4 more years. I’ve been hunting for an OWC of this wine for a few years as it’s my oldest daughters birthyear and 2012 can be a tricky vintage. This lived up to it’s billing as one of the wines of the vintage.
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Absolutely not - I was just writing a ‘tasting note’/guide to an employee for a bottle of 2015 Latour a Pomerol (coincidence?) and mentioned specifically that I love Bordeaux and burgers! Great pairing.
I thought you had an unbroken vertical of VCC back to the 100 Years War?
Do you also find the 1989 and 1990 repulsive? Because big scores, you know.
Honestly, in terms of a style shift for the worse, I’m much more nervous about VCC than La Conseillante. For the most part, Conseillante has held to 14% alcohol and even the 2015 and 2018 didn’t taste over the top ripe to me. Some of the recent VCC vintages we had in Mark’s NY tasting crossed my line. 2016 was great but the 2019 was a bit frightening given I own a few bottles.
I stopped at 2014. Definitly avoided 15 and 18. I think I have some 16 Figeac, but not any of the big boys and girls from Pomerol. Ditto in 2019, although I will say I bought a lot of left bank wines from that vintage.
I’m by far the least experienced/credible person in this thread, but '16 and '19 Conseillante were pretty good when Marielle Cazeaux came through Houston a while back. As I related in my writeup, she said she deferred more to Rolland the first year she made the wine (I think '15) than in subsequent years.
'14 and '15 were both more Rolland-y to my palate than the '16 or '19, and – Alfert cover your ears – the '14 was probably the wine that showed the most deviation from my expected baseline for the vintage. It was still a nice wine that showed the vintage character when tasted in a vertical lineup (far short of the caricature that is the '14 Troplong-Mondot, for instance) just showier than most '14s. The '15 showed about the same as it did the other time I’ve tasted it, which was “eh not my favorite but at least I’m not looking for a dump bucket.” (It was the best of a bad lot of right bankers at the 2015 10-years-on tasting for me, but at least was not DNPIM like e.g. the G. Perse wines were.)
'11 and '16 were my favorites, I think.
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I could not find a 2012 Pomerol at home, but pulled a quasi comparable - 2015 Clos Rene [Pomerol] sipping it the last two days whilst enjoying this thread. It has been a decade since I’ve tasted anything from this estate, but those older examples were very good. Both British wine writers Stephen Brooks and Clive Coates observe that this vineyard, which sits on sandy soils - which is generally not a terroir of longevity - somehow manages to keep well. This plush 14% abv 2015 is already texturally mature and showing secondary flavor aspects like mocha, herbs, tobacco on top of plum fruit. Unusually, there is 10% malbec in the blend here, which is a varietal we see little of in the typical/traditional Bordeaux cepage nowadays. The acid is low here but the tannin are rounded out and there is a lovely mouthfeel, even if it does not come from the lauded blue clay based plateau that @Keith_Levenberg sometimes discusses.
This is a wonderfully generous ‘drinkers’ Pomerol that I would slot into the A- zone, and expect another decade of life ahead. After taking a cursory look, I was dismayed how much new/replacement/current release Clos Rene cost; I don’t think of this name as an $800-$900/cs type of name but this is the issue with many fine wines – they cost much more now. At least I think I have some other vintages (2005?) in my offsite though.
It was not an ideal pairing, but I made a mild stovetop lamb biryani to go with this. And rather awesomely, found a bottle of rosewater in the bar area, that one of my teens allocated ‘one capful’ to me for this. Finishing with a dash of rosewater, torn mint leaves, and crispy shallots makes for a lovely aromatic karahi.
Kudos to @ToddFrench and @Robert.A.Jr for instigating + encouraging a quasi live event for the community here!
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Mmm. Biryani.
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To be fair- I do not think the meddling has ruined La Conseillante (far from it), but it has taken it afield of where I personally loved the wine. I have notes on CT for the 2014 (tasted twice a few years apart), 2016, 2017 and 2019. I gave the 2014 4 of 5 stars both times, the 2016 and 2019 5 of 5 stars and 2017 3 of 5 stars. As I noted in my 2017 TN, the new style will give some boost to the bigger vintages but shows- IMHO- more unfavorably in vintages like 2017 which are more mid-weight and usually of great interest to AFWE folk like me.
As for the 2023- here is my quick TN for the 2023 Duo de Conseillante from a recent trade tasting. La Conseillante was not presented, but based on the Duo I will give it a try and hopefully lay a few down. The 2023 Duo is outstanding- I only hope the grand vin can show the same restraint appropriate to the vintage.
2023 Duo de Conseillante
medium purple red color, pure and seductive nose of crushed raspberries, cloves, blackberries and underbrush, on the palate a pure joy, primary buttery fruit on the red and black spectrums, fine length, brilliantly balanced, lovely now but will develop further nuance with cellaring.
[ ***+ ], a “second” wine in name only - worth pursuing
Note - I often use brackets at large tastings of newly/not yet released wines to evidence it is a preliminary assessment.
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Thanks, Tom. I’m curious about what specifically you think shows differently in vintages like 2017? I’ve enjoyed the 2017 and 2021 quite a bit.
My concern is that the extraction of fruit and oak levels might result in a wine that is not harmoniously mid-weight when it matures.
A good example is old Silver Oak. The great 80s vintages are largely faded now, for for a time in the early 2000s I encountered them frequently in tastings. Napa would be a bigger wine but often have just a bit of raw oak left- not much, but enough to bug me compared to a lighter-weight but perfectly balanced Alexander. And I would also note that at such tastings many people would prefer the Napa.
After 30 years of tasting I have to note it as a potential concern because we have yet to see what will happen- and as time passes I am finding that while many 2000-2015 Bordeaux that went very modern are still not completely to my liking, they are coming out far better than I had feared. This is especially true of some vintages of Cos and L’Angelus.