December 2014

Glossy and ruby.  Its usual atavistic sensibility with a bit more lace and whisper: fine-boned lines graced with spring-flower iridescence and black-currant’s herbal picquancy.   The acidity and earth show more: there is a purity to its fruit sap just not as concentrated as ’89.  What it lacks in strength it makes up for in terroir definition and tapered class.  A true claret, fondued and mature, its future still secure.  Now – 2018.

April 2013

Twenty-five years on tasting.

Color similar to the ’90 Sociando-Mallet.  An immature ruby red color with purple tinges, ever so slight fade to a lighter, mature rim.  A soft, succulent, stylish nose: slightly minty black fruit, sweet sandalwood, iron, spice and smoke.  On the palate, this is savory and composed.   Fine acidity; firm grip.  Long and satisfying mineral finish.

A claret now very much at ease: “bien dans sa peau”, as the French say; literally, comfortable within one’s skin.  A wine of definition and character.  Seductive even.  But what seduces us these days is harmony and transparency.  This is doing great at age twenty-five; so well, in fact, a bottle of this clearly deserves a place at your thirty years on tasting.  Now – 2018.