Chateau Sociando Mallet 2019

JAMES SUCKLING: "Redcurrants with sweet tobacco, hazelnut, mint and moist earth, following through to a medium to full body, ultra-fine tannins and a palate that grows at the finish. Needs a minimum of three or four years to come around. Try after 2025."

DECANTER: "Some savoury elements on the nose, olive and black tapenade. Excellent concentration on the palate, less fruit forward at this point than the Demoiselle second wine, but excellent tension and power – really taut, all in line, straight, driven. A lot going on aromatically – cinnamon, cigar box, cedar, smoke and dark chocolate – really super-complex, with tannins that are smooth but present and a minty finish. Layered and precise, you can feel the sculpting of the fruits and the well-handled oak and extraction. Excellent. Drinking Window 2027 - 2045"

WEINWISSER: "Tiefes Purpur. Verführerisches Schattenmorellenbouquet, roter Johannisbeersaft und heller Tabak. Im zweiten Ansatz edle Cassiswürze und Lavendel. Am delikaten Gaumen punktet er mit cremiger Textur, engmaschigem Tanningerüst, fein mürbem Extrakt und zarter Adstringenz. Im gebündelten Finale blaue Beeren, Kirschhäute und Wacholder. Wirkt aktuell noch etwas burschikos, mit dem Barriquefett kommt hier alles gut zusammen!"

JEB DUNNUCK: "One of the best Haut-Médocs out there, and a wine that competes with any number of classified growths, the 2019 Château Sociando-Mallet is ruby/plum-hued and has a great nose of ripe red and black currants, spice, smoked tobacco, and loamy earth. It shows the more expressive, open, seamless style of the 2019 vintage and is medium to full-bodied, has beautifully polished tannins, and just about perfect balance. Smart readers will buy a case (or more) of this beauty, and it will have an incredibly broad drink window, with 30-35 years of overall longevity."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Notes of minty cassis, cigar wrapper and loamy soil, deftly framed by toasty new oak, introduce the 2019 Sociando-Mallet, a medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated wine that’s incipiently complex and elegantly muscular in profile. The style of the vintage has lent this more youthful polish than is sometimes the case, and it will offer a broad drinking window."

WINE SPECTATOR: "Fresh and focused, showing red currant and damson plum, with a chalky spine and savory and tobacco flecks on the finish. Textbook. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2030. 23,500 cases made."