2010 Château Sociando-Mallet, Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux

Tasted blind

Deep garnet. Still masses of blackcurrant fruit, and cedary. A touch of stone dust and perhaps a little spirity. Tight, juicy and youthful. Chewy yet smoothed. Slightly abrupt finish.

Drink 2018 - 2028

It is a slightly lean wine with blueberry and currant character. Medium to full body. Fresh finish. Firm tannins. It needs a year or two to soften.

Deep garnet coloured, the 2010 Sociando-Mallet charges out of the gate with open-knit, maturing scents of baked blackberries, warm cassis and plum preserves, followed by notes of sandalwood, cedar chest and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a firm, grippy texture and bold freshness supporting the evolved, slightly drying fruit, finishing a bit chewy.

Drink 2020 - 2032

A very classic wine for patient connoisseurs, Sociando Mallet makes no compromises and continues to produce one of the finest wines among non-classified estates in Haut-Medoc.Dense purple to the rim, the opaque purple-colored 2010 offers up notes of graphite, blueberry and black raspberry fruit, a hint of cassis, some licorice and wet rocks. Deep, full-bodied and almost excruciatingly tannic, this full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall style of wine needs at least 8-10 years of cellaring and should keep for three decades or more.

Drink 2021 - 2051

55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc,

Good bright red-ruby. The pungent, expressive nose offers black raspberry, blueberry, bitter chocolate, leather and flowers. Densely packed, juicy and sweet, with excellent inner-mouth energy to the black raspberry and mineral flavours complicated by sexy smoky oak. There is lovely ripeness and vinosity here. It finishes with substantial firm tannins that will support a couple of decades of graceful evolution in the bottle. Like some past outstanding vintages of Sociando-Mallet, this will make a great ringer in future tastings with classified growers from the northern Medoc.

The 2010 Sociando-Mallet is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc picked between September 24 and October 15. There is initially a touch of reduction, although that soon blows away to reveal attractive blackberry, briar, cigar box and dried herb/scorched earth scents that blossom with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with well-integrated oak, supple tannin, well-judged acidity and a smooth, sensual finish unusual for this property!) This is a great Sociando-Mallet destined for long-term ageing.

Drink 2022 - 2040

It is ideal with a one-hour carafe.

Fennel, black chocolate, crushed roses, cassis, andblackberry will run and run and are ofexceptional value, particularly in the context of the vintage. Tasted ex-retail, not ex-chateau. Harvest September 24 to October 12. 100% new oak for ageing, native yeast fermentation. One corked bottle and the second tasted exceptional.

Drink 2024 - 2040