1990 Château Sociando-Mallet- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc (12/23/2018)
Popped and followed for two hours, paired with grilled lamb. Still a dark garnet. Nose of intense pine forest, cassis, black currant, moca, cedar. After 90 minutes the palate revealed linear but dense currant fruit, earth, leather, chocolate, and a bit of green pepper. Very nice acidity and softened tannin. Longer finish of dark plum fruit, dense earth, and sweet green bite. Very satisfying, mature wine which took a bit of time to open. Last taste was 14 years ago. (92 pts.)
Other than (seemingly rare) sound bottles of the 82 (which can be truly epic), the 90 is far and away my favorite Sociando. Your note captures it well.
Very interesting. Pat thanks for highlighting the 1982.
I haven’t had a JG either; will be on the lookout. Interestingly I have recently sampled the 1995 Sociando (non-JG) and it was very fine in the 375 ml format.
Yea this 1990 is quite special. A gem of a deal if you had stocked up way back when. I need to backfill on it. Just grabbed a smattering of 1995 and 1996 JG from KL.
Not a huge Sociando fan generally, but 1982 last week from a bottle that otherwise looked great was not. Very green, angry, coarse. None of the 5 of us at the table, including the guy who brought it, really liked it.
I’ve had the 82 Sociando 6-7 times over the last few years, and the bottles have ranged from exhilarating to bad to flawed (undrinkably musty, but not corked). All of the bottles had excellent fills and color, but were all sourced recently on auction, so maybe storage is the main variable.
Here’s my note from 2 years ago to the day on one of the good bottles:
1982 Château Sociando-Mallet Beautiful nose of pine resin, wood smoke, bell pepper, campfire ash, unsweetened chocolate, sagebrush. The bouquet grows with air as some sweetness emerges, but the nose is not flashy; it remains restrained, cool, classy, deep. To taste, there’s cassis, black olives, and some black tea notes. The fruit is quite earthy/leathery/cedary, but still beautifully intact. With air, some minty vanilla notes emerge. There are ample, hard tannins which harken to another era, but that are now silky smooth. I find this combo --silky iron-- pretty thrilling. Finishes long, cool, shrubby. This is the best bottle I’ve had of this, incredible.
I have some 2001 JG. I served it blind at Tim McCracken’s 50th near Bordeaux in September, and one guest guessed 1986 Mouton, perhaps not so much on the calibre of the wine, but perhaps more misjudging my generosity.
The 2001 JG is a good wine with SM traits in abundance, but in a 2001 horizontal here in London a couple of months ago it didn’t excel and was in the middle of the pack. It did not win any top three preferences among the ten or so participants.
I have not tried it side by side with the regular cuvee. I long to track down some 1970 or 1975 SM at auction, and bought the 2001 JG out of curiosity. It worked out at £295 fo six, all in from Berry Brothers.
