TN: 1996 Château Sociando-Mallet Cuvée Jean Gautreau, Haut-Medoc

It’s like Jean Gautreau made a wine in Paulliac. This nose is a perfect fusion of the Sociando imprimatur implanted on a vineyard in this venerable appellation. Game, funk and a subtle waft of brett meets dark cassis and classic grade school Number 2 pencil. This wine would school anyone blind. Like a Paulliac from the mid-80s, so classic in structure. So impeccably balanced. It’s my understanding that not only does this special cuvée come from a favored lot, but it also has a higher concentration of Cabernet Sauvignon. It shows. Great weight on the palate, dense and meaty but with a satiny refinement that is juxtaposed to the nose. Like elegance following rustic. Mostly dark fruits with some red fruit acid, dry leather, tobacco and dry earth. Still carrying some tannic clout, and just a slight dryness on the backend that places this wonderful wine a couple points behind its blockbuster 1995.

(94 pts.)

PS. I was inspired to pop this after seeing Julian’s note on the regular 1996, and then today Kenny H texted me a pic of the 1995, and we reminisced about a classic 1982. Sociando on the mind is a good thing.

Very similar profile to what I had last night with a very generous Scott Watkins in the '95 Sociando. It killed with Flannery aged steak (my first and boy did it deliver!) and chimichurri, not a lot of wines I have do that. No dryness on the Soc at all though, even with a firm tannic structure, the acid carries the day keeping it light, and playful with food. Just tremendous at that level.

Likewise, we paired this with two 20+ ounce bone-in ribeyes that my kid grabbed at Fresh Market and then grilled for us. He’s home for Fall break. Love my kid.

College kid buying you steaks? Are you sure they came from the market? I’d be out there checking on the front of the Rover.

Wish he would have brought some Bama Bambi!

At least it’s not gator.

Sounds wonderful - and looks incredibly young, too. It’s funny how the flavour profile of SM can change according to the vintage and cuvée. The JG 01 is just like yours, very Pauillac, whereas the normal 01 and the normal 97 are more Margaux-like, and the normal 96 last weekend was like a Moulis. Although SM strenuously denies that JG is a super cuvée, I wonder if the wine doesn’t come from the rich seam of Pauillac/St.Estèphe-like terroir which reaches up into the middle of the vineyard. I imagine also that the reason they make so little noise about it in terms of publicity and marketing is that JG is a double-edged sword - they have 400K bottles of the normal wine to sell, so they have no interest in detracting from its reputation.

Nor would I want them to, Sociando is Sociando. ”Sociando je suis, Sociando ne change”.

The core wine encapsulates everything that I want in Bordeaux. Reverence to history. No changing with the tides and fancies of any era. Reflective of its terroir. Variations on a vintage basis. A kiss of rusticity. Eschews modernist consultants. Affordable. So good, such value, that you can reach into your wine cabinet any day of the week and grab a bottle of this most wonderful wine without any guilt. The top Bordeaux really now are luxury products. Bordeaux is also meant to be consumed, enjoyed, part of one’s daily existence. This is why wines like Sociando and Lanessan are so important to me. I am not a collector, I am a regular consumer. Like the Joe the Plumber of Bordeaux.

What’s with the steam punk industrial strength cork pulling apparatus?

If you were a real cyclist you would know exactly what that is.

There Is a nice little story behind the design of that corkscrew. It is designed and manufactured by Campagnola. And it works flawlessly.

Yes, indeed - I misunderstood it for years but now, as the Monkees sang, “I’m a believer”! It’s also not a speculator’s wine - they produce so much that prices do not really increase in the same way as elsewhere. The 97 I bought recently was the same price I paid for it back in 2000. Over here, and I imagine where you are too, it’s really easy to get more of the vintages which turn out the best. Nothing to dislike at all.

Something I forgot to add - you’re right about the higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, which even reached 100% in the case of the 2010. In 1996, they used 73% of CS as opposed to 53% for the normal cuvée.

Not many critics have ever reviewed the JG - in fact the only report I have ever read was Neal Martin’s last year. I found it slightly odd concerning JG, because he wasn’t over-enamoured:

“Though rarely seen, prices are little different from Sociando-Mallet itself, partly because few people are aware of the Cuvée Jean Gautreau’s existence and partly because it is not implicitly superior. There are some excellent vintages, such as the 2001, 2009 and 2010 Cuvée Jean Gautreau, but they are as much a reflection of those great growing seasons as anything else. Stylistically, they would appeal to palates that prefer a modern style of Left Bank, richer and glossier than the regular Sociando-Mallet. At its best, the Cuvée Jean Gautreau can certainly mature over 15 to 20 years; in other vintages, especially those that experience weaker growing seasons, it seems burdened by the new oak and the results are less interesting.”

So apparently, you like a “modern style of Left Bank”! I’ve got tremendous respect for Neal and his taste but this is one of the rare occasions I disagree.

Thanks for the enthusiastic note, Robert! Sounds lovely. I think I’ve enjoyed at least twenty-five vintages of Sociando in the past decades, but never a Cuvée Jean Gautreau.

Yup, it’s actually the only corkscrew that I own.

Well Ian, you sir are a real cyclist, even if you do hang with the slow group these days…

IMO the JG much better in 96 than 97
Thr SM is better in 97

Great note Robert! After that 95 we opened and your professed love of Sociando I am convinced that your palate is solid Now to find all the older bottles I can get my paws on.

We are pairing our Gator tomorrow with stone crabs. That would be Florida Gators kicking the crap out of the Georgia Bulldogs. Feet up at 3:30!

Does Sociando pair with stone crab?

Don’t let Kenny-Boy speak badly about me! I own him on the bike.

For current drinking at least, I’m ready to call the 95 Sociando (normale) my favorite by good margin of the post-1990 vintages.