1999 Château Sociando-Mallet

Displays very good concentration for the vintage. Aromatic, with plum, currant and tar character, the wine is medium- to full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a medium finish. Super buy. 21,665 cases made.

Author: James Suckling

Harvest date 13-30 Sep; yield 63.6 hl/ha; vineyard area 57.09 haLight to mid crimson. Not much on the nose but lots of rather aggressive fruit and very chewy tannins on the palate. Something a little rusty nail about it on the finish at the moment. Maybe it will blossom eventually?

Author: Jancis Robinson

Medium ruby. Roasted black fruits and exotic oak spices on the nose. Fat, full and sweet; lush and mouthfilling but manages to retain a certain elegance. Finishes with fine tannins and excellent length for the year.

Author: Stephen Tanzer

Issue: May/June 2001

Sociando Mallet's opaque ruby/purple-colored 1999 reveals notes of wet steel, liquified minerals, black cherries/black currants, and subtle wood. Aromatically, there is not much difference between this wine and a renowned classified growth such as Leoville Las Cases. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied, with high tannin for a 1999, a long, persistent finish, and very good to excellent concentration and purity. This is a surprisingly backward wine, but then this is Sociando Mallet, the perennial overachiever making wines of exceptional longevity. (Bottles of 1982 and 1975 drunk in December were still not fully mature.)

Author: Robert Parker