Wine Advisor
Sociando Mallet 1999
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 1999 Sociando-Mallet is an unusually structured, extracted wine in this generally rather forward vintage. Offering up aromas of cassis, cherries and loamy soil, framed by a discreet patina from its élevage in barrel, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and nicely concentrated, with ripe acids and rich tannins that still assert themselves on the finish. This is one 1999 that still amply benefits from an hour in a decanter before drinking, but age is being kind to it.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Dominated by New Oak on the nose. Again high acidity and a little dilute on the palate. This is disappointingly thin having tasted the superb 1996 recently. Tasted March 2000. (No tasting note was provided in Issue 128. We have instead included the text of the tasting note from the 2000 Neal Martin’s Wine Journal)
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Dominated by New Oak on the nose. Again high acidity and a little dilute on the palate. This is disappointingly thin having tasted the superb 1996 recently. Tasted March 2000.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
An elegant, stylish effort, the 1999 reveals red currant, mineral, and spicy aromas. Though initially lean, it builds in the mouth, revealing abundant quantities of black currant and mineral flavors, sweet tannin, and good concentration. It should drink well upon release and over the following 10-14 years. This wine has filled out nicely over the last year.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at the 1999 horizontal at Bordeaux Index. Strangely, the nose is a distant cousin of L’Evangile with black fruits, smoke, candied orange peel and a hint of marmalade. Good definition and freshness. The palate is medium-bodied, not a complex Sociando but well balanced, supple with well-judged acidity. It has very nice balance between austerity and corpulence, but lacks a little vigour and vivacity. Drink now-2017. Tasted June 2009.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Sociando Mallet's opaque ruby/purple-colored 1999 reveals notes of wet steel, liquified minerals, black cherries/black currants, and subtle wood. Aromatically, there is not much difference between this wine and a renowned classified growth such as Leoville Las Cases. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied, with high tannin for a 1999, a long, persistent finish, and very good to excellent concentration and purity. This is a surprisingly backward wine, but then this is Sociando Mallet, the perennial overachiever making wines of exceptional longevity. (Bottles of 1982 and 1975 drunk in December were still not fully mature.) Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018.
About the Producer
Château Sociando-Mallet is located in the Haut-Medoc, a region rich in Cru Bourgeois, but it is not precisely a Cru Bourgeois, not because it is not qualified, but because the owners felt that its excellence did not need to be judged by outsiders. The Château did not take part in either the 1855 Grand Cru de Médoc or the 1932 Cru Bourgeois. But with the quality of its wines, Château Marly has a real chance of winning the Cru Bourgeois! The grapes are hand-harvested, fermented in large concrete vats, clarified with egg white and placed in oak barrels. The grapes are hand-harvested, fermented in large concrete vats, clarified with egg white and aged in oak barrels to absorb the oak and soften the tannins. The Chateau Sociando-Mallet is aged for three months in oak barrels, with 100% new oak. The secondary wine of Château Sociando-Mallet is "LaDemoiselle de Sociando-Mallet". Thanks to Jean Gautreau's meticulous winemaking and good management, Château Mallet is fast becoming a class apart from the Cru Bourgeois and even the Grand Cru. The wines have a good structure and firm tannins, with a long finish, a characteristic that is usually found only at the Grand Cru level and above, but Château Marly is so capable that it has been described as "one of the highest quality AOCs in the entire Médoc". In the better vintages of Château Marly, Robert Parker gave it a score of 90 points, commenting: "A classic nose with a mix of cassis, graphite, ore and earth, a medium depth of body, a concentrated structure and, as always, outstanding quality, Château Marly always produces long-lived wines capable of ageing for 20-30 years. Great wines."
1982(1)1983(1)1985(2)1990(3)1996(2)
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