Sociando-Mallet is the poster child for what cru bourgeois estates can achieve. This is a wine that is consistently of classified-growth quality and also one of the longest lived wines made in the Medoc. An exceptional vintage for Sociando-Mallet, 2003 has produced a spectacularly concentrated, inky blue/purple-colored wine with an extraordinary nose of blackberries, raspberries, some white flowers, and a hint of lead pencil shavings. The wine is powerful, extremely full-bodied, quite tannic, and seriously endowed. This is stunning wine that is rich, layered, and in need of 5-6 years of bottle-age. It should keep for 30+ years. It is certainly a riveting effort for the vintage and, as I wrote last year, probably a modern-day version of a hypothetical blend of a 1970 and a 1982. RP
Good medium ruby-red color. More grilled on the nose than the 24 or 25: superripe black fruits and bitter chocolate. Then liqueur-like verging on confectionery in the mouth, but with surprisingly healthy acids giving shape to the dominant black fruit flavors. At once velvety and quite powerful, with the fine-grained tannins currently conveying a rather soft impression. This is deceptively drinkable right now but should evolve positively in bottle for the next 1 or 15 years. This has more power but the 25 offers more finesse, notes Gautreau.- Stephen Tanzer (5/26)
Producer: Sociando Mallet
Vintage: 2003
Varietal: Red Blend
Country: France
Region: Bordeaux
Sub-Region: Medoc
Appellation: Haut Medoc
Sub-Appellation:
SKU: #
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