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2000 Château Sociando-Mallet - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc (3/26/2016)
Cellared since release, perfect cork and fill. Immediately after opening, still cool from the cellar, it’s already got a great nose of cassis, smoke, black pepper, green pepper, tea. They carry through to the palate, where the wine is beautifully balanced and medium-bodied. Crunchy fruit, crisp acidity. The classic Sociando greens are there, just in the right proportion for this wine.
After a couple of hours the wine is even better and fuller. A great match with a grilled Flannery NY steak. Starting to show just a bit of tertiary complexity, this should get even better with more cellar age. Excellent.
Posted from CellarTracker
Happy to read the TN.
Looks like all the components that I like about this producer are present.
At the price that it went for at release, it was easy for me to load up on this then.
Nice! The 2000 is smack in my wheelhouse. I find it to be one of the greenest of Sociandos from an otherwise ripe vintage.
I popped a 1995 last night, will post notes later. It was beautiful. A very balanced wine.
Had the 2000 Sociando last night. Here are my impressions:
Smells of juniper, peppercorns, smoke, black tea, mint, bell pepper, chicle. Terrific bouquet. Smooth, bone dry, spicy, minty, graphite, good glycerin, a little rustic on the finish. Needs a steak right now. Nothing out of place here, this is a classic Sociando through and through. That all said, it lacks some of the charm of the 01 and the sugar of the 03, and it’s borderline dilute in the middle. Not hard or closed, and it is good now, but could this just need more time to shine? I will say, this got better and better into the bottle and went down very easily, so overall 90-91 pts.
If you like your wines a little lean, you’ll be thrilled by this as is. I loved the bouquet but I prefer my wines a little deeper, a little richer. That could come out with further time to develop or maybe many of the 2000s aren’t going to have that extra gear?
I agree, Pat. I think the 2000 is showing us what it is. The more recent vintages of 2001 and 2005 are much deeper and will reward greater evolution. 2003 is deeper as well but I’m not sure where it goes, am sitting on some to see, but it sure drinks well right now. The 1995 from last night had horsepower.
I own some of the 05 S-M, but I’ve been too wary to try one. But everyone seems to think it is a great Sociando with more depth than usual.
Wasn’t Salil supposed to be popping one this weekend?
Tonight I think, but last time instead of posting notes, all we got was a pic of him in his vinyl Members Only jacket.
Is Salil tweeting or something?
Texting. Salil’s not compulsive like Bobby, but then Bobby is in a category most often reserved for 14 year old girls.
My last drank bottles of 96 and 95 were much more on the very tight to being on the closed side of the spectrum. So much so that I decided to send the rest of the few bottles that I have at home back to to my offsite storage to sleep with the rest that I have there.
As for the 2003s, I don’t regret having gotten rid of my at release bottles 4 years ago at Commerce Corner and for a better pricing than the lowest that I see on WS today. It’s deep, all right, but the deepness in the sugar didn’t sit well with me and which I found to not marry well with the green component. I’m sure that somebody’s bound to bring one of these at future wine dinners/tastings.