Ch.Sociando Mallet 2009 ex-ch 750ml

Wine Advocate #199, Dec 23, 2011
This uncompromising property has turned out a backward, forbiddingly tannic wine that, even in this very opulent and flamboyant vintage, will need a minimum of 10-15 years of cellaring yet keep for 40 or more years. Opaque black/purple, with notes of crushed rock, white flowers, graphite, blueberry and cassis, the wine is tight and needs to be coaxed from the glass. It is medium to full-bodied, with an excruciatingly tough-textured finish. Everything is here, and the wine is set for a long life, but it is not the least bit charming and certainly won’t be for at least another decade.

Chateau Sociando-Mallet is an unclassed Bordeaux wine producer from the appellation Haut-Medoc. The winery is located on the Left Bank of the Bordeaux wine regions, in the commune of Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne north of Saint-Estephe, France. Despite its estimation as a producer of high quality wine, it was neither ranked in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 (not existing at the time), nor is it listed among Medoc's Cru Bourgeois, due to a decision of its owner Jean Gautreau not to enter it for such classification.
The winery also produces a second wine named La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet.
Situated on what was in 1633 the residence of a Basque nobleman named Sievre Sociando, the first documentation of the estate mentions its nobles terres. After its acquisition around 1850 by Madame Mallet, it was recorded in the 1883 edition of Cocks & Feret along with Chateau Verdignan as the leading cru of Saint-Seurin.
Sociando was a forgotten and derelict property of vastly reduced land by the time it was bought by Jean Gautreau, a negociant from Lesparre, in 1969. The estate has since seen considerable expansion and modernisation, and enjoys high prices and a good reputation in today's wine market.

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