Chateau Sociando Mallet

Never entered into the 1855 classification, this is one of those estates that can put its classified rivals to shame.

In 2003 the estate again opted out of the Cru Bourgeois classification; the proprietor, Jean Gautreau, feeling that the petty politics surrounding the process would bring his chateau into disrepute. Instead, ever-confident, he decided that his wine should stand on its own (considerable) merits.

The estate can be traced back to the early 1600s, when it was the residence of Basque nobleman Sociando. The owner at the time of the French Revolution was a well-regarded lawyer called Guillaume de Brochon, who had his property requisitioned, broken up and sold.

It then passed onto a gentleman named Lamothe and then a naval captain, Mallet. It was he who gave the property its name, ‘Sociando-Mallet’. From this point the estate came under the successive management of several lacklustre individuals, the quality of its wine diminishing all the while. Finally, it fell into the hands of Jean Gautreau in 1969.

He found himself with a somewhat decrepit property on his hands. The vineyard had shrunk to a few hectares of vines, while several buildings amounted to nothing more than hollow husks (of varying levels of structural integrity). To add insult to injury, several locals felt that the bolt-on name of ‘Mallet’ was, to say the least, amusing.

Not that the implacable Gautreau was deterred in the least. He had ploughed those vineyards that had fallen out of use, revealing gravelly soils. In fact, it is this same band of gravel that runs beneath Latour and other leading properties of the Medoc.

Heartened, he snapped up more land and today the vineyard span across a respectable 50 hectares. The buildings were also restored, while new building projects are ongoing – including a tasting room that offers a breathtaking panoramic view across the vines and the Gironde. The cellars are especially impressive; Gautreau has opted to hold back an astonishing 10,000 bottles in some vintages.

The estate is situated on the banks of the Gironde. The vineyard is situated on a gravel croupe that slopes away from the buildings at the top of the estate. Vines are planted at 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot, the remaining 5% comprising of part Petit Verdot and part Cabernet Franc. Vines are planted densely, and there is no green harvest, resulting in very high yields even for Bordeaux, at 80 hl/ha on average.

Harvesting is a manual process and the crushed fruit is fermented in concrete and stainless-steel vats at temperatures up to 33 Celsius (so as to best extract tannins). The grand vin is Chateau Sociando-Mallet, and there are usually 20,000 cases to be had each year. The second wine is called Le Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet. Notably, the wine is bottled without fining or filtration.