Jean Gautreau - Sociando Mallet
Jean Gautrau is something of a Maverick, having bought Sociando Mallet in the sixties he has developed a cult following for the wines of this Northern Medoc Estate whilst denying much of the conventional restraint effected by the Bordeaux hierarchy upon many of his neighbours and peers.
Monsieur Gautrau refuses to join the Union des Grands Crus and why would he…Classified Cru Bourgeois in the 1855 classification Sociando is usually an easy sell for the Bordeaux Wholesalers when released en primeur, even though it is released at the usual price of a 3rd growth!
So what’s the secret…? Simple it’s the ‘Terroir’. Situated close to the river on deep gravel over clay, you could be talking about one of the first growths! Gautrau is also not a fan of low yields, green harvesting, fining, filtration…in fact his philosophy is as little intervention as possible. The vines here are planted unusually close together, a technique being experimented on by several other high profile estates. Pascale Roby explains that this creates competition amongst the vines, deepening the root system and hardyness. Neither do they need to spray against botrytis, which kills off their favoured natural yeasts, the omnipresent breeze caused by proximity to both the River Gironde and the Atlantic keeps the vines moving throughout the day, preventing the aggressive fungus from taking hold.
Last night I was given an opportunity to understand the foundation for this phenomena at a tasting organised by the Midland Wine & Spirit Association and tutored by Richard Bampfield MW and Pascale Roby, a member of Gautreau’s team since 2008.
After a delicious flight of the easy going Second Wine ‘Demoiselle de Sociando Mallet’ there was a notable impact given by the quality of the first wine. The 2007 Sociando Mallet is drinking beautifully, with a relaxed decadence of a mature wine with plenty of mid-palate character and a gorgeous finish. The 2008 was a much more structured example still tight and primary needing a couple more years bottle age before it will reveal the complexity of the 2007 but will certainly be age worthy. 2009 Sociando Mallet is up another two notches with an intense rich nose of grilled toast and tapenade, and so much sweet black cherry fruit, providing a velvet cushion on the palate. This is quite surprisingly already drinkable but will give great pleasure with a couple more years bottle age and will be magnificent after ten. The 2010 Sociando Mallet was for me both for the first and second wines more convincing still. Equally rich with more structure giving a complete story of what is probably the finest vintage of a generation or two. Wow!
We finished off with an example of how Sociando develops with bottle age, the 1996 showed brilliantly, with a beautiful nose of stewed ripe and dried fruits, cranberries, Camembert and warm spices, followed by a seamless charm on the palate, gently coaxing the taste buds, with raspberries and pomegranate, into soft the moorish finish.
Will Gardener