1996 Sociando Mallet

[Blanquito]

1996 Sociando Mallet
I understand this wine has received some plaudits around here, so I was eager to try a bottle this evening (a sultry night in Denver, a new-normal, fossil-fuels-induced, GOP-enabled hellscape that feels like the bayou in July). I don't know precisely what false-starts and mis-turns this wine may have take along the way, but as of the summer of 2023, I can declare without equivocation, this is a beauty. Showing at peak maturity for my palate, there are tertiary facets galore in the serious, complex bouquet -- worn leather, leafy cabernet scents, hatch chilies, smoked poblanos, dried currants, freshly-turned soil, and some sweet spicy notes (cinnamon?) only mature Bordeaux seems to get -- combined with the vigor, grip, dry extract, and length on the body of a wine in its prime. Definitely on the drier end of the spectrum on the finish, where it still displays some rustic hardiness, but with hearty food these "agricultural" flashes are a feature, not a bug.

I am really digging this and I imagine it would equally thrill lovers of traditional claret and Loire cab franc. Bravo. 93 pts.

[jckba]

Boom!

[JimHow]

Very first BWE wine of the year.

[jal]

So much bottle variation in the 1996 Sociando. I have had bad, mediocre, ok and good bottles all from the same case.

[Blanquito]

So much bottle variation in the 1996 Sociando. I have had bad, mediocre, ok and good bottles all from the same case.

Yeah, I certainly got a good one yesterday.

Bottle variation is definitely a major variable at S-M, though I’ve had far more issues with vintages from the 80’s than more recent ones. But s scanning CT notes, it seems like this was an issue to some degree as well from 95-03 (at least).

[ericp]

What’s amazing to me is this cru bourgeois at age 26 is still going pretty strong!! I was on the early bandwagon with Jim on this one and my cases are long gone and I’ve been gone for a very long time.

[Jay Winton]

So much bottle variation in the 1996 Sociando. I have had bad, mediocre, ok and good bottles all from the same case.

and then there is the 2000 vintage-same characteristics.

[AKR]

It's really hard to understand the variation within a single case. I've experienced it too. Maybe it's something with the corks which are unusually long by industry standards?

[stefan]

I had no variation in bottles from my case of 1996 Sociando Mallet.

[JimHow]

Same here. I have found virtually every bottle of 1996 Sociando Mallet to be consistently great, with zero variation.

[Comte Flaneur]

So much bottle variation in the 1996 Sociando. I have had bad, mediocre, ok and good bottles all from the same case.

That is similar to my experience too with this wine Jacques but with no ‘good’ bottles and always disappointing and thus always below expectations

I think I have one left -

[Blanquito]

Drinking the thawed dregs of the bottle tonight and this is really killer. Better on the nose, reminding me of the way terrific wines from the 80’s smell, indeed is bouquet is fully mature in all ways. Really, really good, 93 is conservative for this bottle.

[JimHow]

A controversial wine, the first BWE wine of the year.
I recall it as universally beloved during that first year of BWE, with great promise, thus our choice as the very first BWE wine of the year, among many, many possible options.

[Blanquito]

For my two cents, this was a very, very worthy choice, irrespective of any subsequent bottle variation. Not only classic and so good, but affordable enough that a grad student (like I was at the time I joined BWE) could afford to chase a few (I bought a few at the time from the once venerable Sherry Lehman). Saluti!

[Nicklasss]

Yes, it is a very good choice for a 1st BWE WOTY.

I have also noticed some bottle variation, but nothing shocking at all.

[Michael-P]

I bought maybe a 6 pack back in the BWE hype days, prior to woty, but the few I had 5 or so years later were not impressive so I sold off the few left. Perhaps premature? MP