Château Sociando-Mallet: Tasting & Drinking
Jean Gautreau was a meticulous guardian of Château Sociando-Mallet, elevating quality to the level of a number of cru classé châteaux. Under his direction there were five decades of investment and single-minded direction at Château Sociando-Mallet, and the wines developed an excellent reputation as a result. They have a pure, cool style which oozes left bank gravel terroir, rather than the more rustic charm and less well delineated palates that characterise some other estates of the Haut-Médoc. Talking with Jean during some of my many visits to the property revealed which châteaux he saw as his peers, which said something to me about how he saw his own wines. They included certain troisième cru estates, such as Château Giscours, although I felt that in truth he may have set his sights a little higher than even this.
Despite Jean’s passing in 2019, and no matter what level of quality he achieved, this remains an estate on the way up. There is yet more that could be done here – in the vineyard in particular I think – to squeeze another few drops of excellence from the Château Sociando-Mallet vines. Today it is Sylvie Gautreau, and the new technical director François Hugueniot, who will take on this challenge.
Looking back at recent vintages one word comes to mind regarding the wines of Château Sociando-Mallet and that is reliability. These are wines that deliver classic style, year-in, year-out. To be frank I have never tasted a truly exciting vintage, in the manner that one can get excited about 2020 Château Giscours, or 2019 Château Pichon-Lalande, but neither have I ever tasted a real disappointment, with even weaker vintages showing well.
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