1999 Sociando Mallet
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Tasting notes
The 1999 Sociando-Mallet is an unusually structured, extracted wine in this generally rather forward vintage. Offering up aromas of cassis, cherries and loamy soil, framed by a discreet patina from its élevage in barrel, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and nicely concentrated, with ripe acids and rich tannins that still assert themselves on the finish. This is one 1999 that still amply benefits from an hour in a decanter before drinking, but age is being kind to it.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Lovely healthy crimson. Sweet with a hint of TCA? Very ripe and a little bit over the top for me. Hot, sweet finish. Not refreshing. (JR)
Very dark crimson. Thick, cassis. Quite rich, very sweet, very beguiling. Perhaps not the most distinctively Médoc wine. Could almost be New World. Fresh and clean on the finish. Still some quite furry tannins. A very particular style that classicists might not enjoy. (JR)
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.) Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018. Wine Advocate.April, 2002