2020 Château Sociando-Mallet - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc (6/4/2024)
Aired in the glass for about an hour. Dark, not quite opaque garnet, I get deep crushed plum fruit, some oak but not overly obtrusive; palate is pretty decent dark plum fruit, good restrained flavor, plenty of acidity, moderate, slightly chewy, rustic tannins. There's some dried tobacco lurking in there, even a hint of tar, a touch of bitterness on the finish right now. Actually pretty tasty even at this young age, would probably improve quite a lot with food. I can see this being in a pretty good place in 8-10 years, though drinkable even now if tolerant of the youthful structure. (90 points)
Few hours later: fruit has come more forward, structure has receded a bit, this is drinking awfully well now. Makes me wonder how long it will age.
Not at all! Drank reasonably well right off the bat, and with a few hours of air it’s downright tasty. Frankly, it does make me wonder about long term ageability, though I’m sure it will easily go 10-15.
Wow! Thanks for taking one for the team. I’ve never opened Sociando this early. Any comparison to other vintages at same age? This producer is usually highly structured.
Jean Gautreau died in 2019 and, I think, handed over winemaking to his daughter a couple of years before that. I haven’t had a Sociando Mallet after 2014–and don’t intend to–but I wonder if the winemaking has changed. SMs didn’t used to be drinkable this early–not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.
I was told by someone in the trade that he really was not involved in winemaking from vintage 2016 onward. Does anyone else have any input on that? The 2014 vintage was the last one that I bought in any depth, and I bought a ton of it, skipped 2015 and then bought a few 2016. Nothing else. I really just need to try some current releases.
I think it’s helpful to hear comments on young S-M from regular WB’s. Although, for the most part, I’m not buying the house any more. My tastes have changed a bit over the decades.
I had this recently and liked it a lot. My notes quickly translated from Norwegian:
Very dark color. Nose straight out of the bottle of dark berries, oak, smoke, spices and minerals. Noticeable tannins and good concentration in the mouth.
With 4 hours of aeration, the wine is significantly rounded, the oak character clearly toned down and with rich fruit that goes more in a plummy direction and coats the tannins well. Beautiful length, touch of graphite, firm and long with nice balance.
So I went over to Leve’s page to take a look. From 2018 to 2023, all the SM wines are rated 90 or higher. From 2015 and before, they were almost all rated in the high 80s except for a couple of standout vintages. 2016 was in the 90s and 2017 in the high 80s. I would say, in general, that there has been a notable uptick in ratings after Sylvie and her son took over. As I said, I haven’t tasted enough vintages after 2014 to have anything really to say about winemaking changes. I do think we can say that Leve’s palate did not change in 2018 or so.