THE 2014 HARVEST
A first taste …
The last fruit was brought in at La Conseillante at 5.0 pm on Monday the 6th October. We started on 23rd September with three early plots of Merlot, then continued across the rest of the plateau on 29th and 30th September followed by the Saint-Emilion part on 1st and 2nd October. The Cabernet Franc grapes that grow on our gravelly plots were picked on 6th October.
Overall, harvesting took place over the period of a fortnight and consisted of five and a half days of actual picking.
Under perfect blue skies with temperatures ranging from 7°C (45°F) in the mornings to 27°C (81°F) in the afternoons, a team of 20 pickers, 5 carriers and 8 sorters managed to bring in 67 metric tons of grapes.
Now winemaking is fully underway. Our new vathouse with tanks for each vineyard plot has returned to effective use this year, now the yield of fruit has become normal again. We are now able to give individual attention to meet the precise needs of each tank.
The juice has good taste and colour from the nice acidity and naturally concentrated grapes, which resulted from the scarcity of rain in the second phase of ripening. This lack of water also clearly contributed to tannin development and ripening of the pips. This vintage is still however relatively uneven. Cold, wet conditions during the flowering period were the main culprit. This is typically visible with pink grapes in the middle of the bunches, which of course are eliminated on the sorting table. The fruit was however clean, disease-free and ripe overall, which made de-stemming and sorting quite easy.
This vintage was definitely saved by the late-summer weather, which set in from 27th August onwards. This last month we have enjoyed temperatures that are significantly above the ten-year average and wide differences between the warmest and coldest times in the day that stimulate good ripening.
La Conseillante wines this year should be of very good quality with an average alcohol content around 13.2% and a pH of 3.6. Volumes should be slightly shy of 39 hectolitres per hectare. A happy ending therefore for this vintage, which growers in Pomerol hope will resemble 2001 and 2006 in style!
Pomerol, France 9th October 2014
Thanks for passing on the report. I’ve always had a soft spot for Conseillante since I bought a case of the 1971 for my uncle (at Yorktown near you in the late 70s) and he gave me two bottles. However, this looks a lot like Bordeaux-speak. 2001 and 2006 are hardly well regarded vintages, although I thought the 2001 Valandraud from St. Emilion was superb.
2001 was not hailed at the time, but it has turned out to be a very high quality vintage, esp the right bank merlot. And the 2001 Conseillante is a killer wine. If the 2014 is a new version of 2001, that would be very fine indeed.
Not that I would be in the market at the prices Conseillante gets these days. Now, if it comes out at 2001 prices . . .
2006 was a solid rather than a great vintage, and probably the best of the non VOTC (Vintage of the century) from that decade.
As Neal says, right bank 2001s are really coming on well, and are just a small step down from 2009, 2005, 2000 and 1998.
Saint-Emilion, as in the commune of Saint-Emilion? La Conseillante takes fruit from outside Pomerol?? Or is that just a coincidentally named _lieu-di_t within Pomerol?
Anyway, the '85, which I’ve been lucky to have tried several times, remains one of my wine highlights. The '89 and '90 weren’t too shabby, either.
La Conseillante is spans across the division between pomerol and st emillion, but is mostly in pomerol. I don’t know the percentage breakdown.
Thanks, Josh, I didn’t know that; I assume that the majority of the fruit has to come from Pomerol if they want to use that A.C., but I’m still a bit surprised that anything else is allowed.