2016 Château de Malleret, Haut-Médoc

[AlexR]

I have always had a soft spot for Château de Malleret, a beautiful 350-hectare estate located in Le Pian-Médoc, a 5-minute drive from Château La Lagune, the first classified growth one encounters travelling north from Bordeaux.

With 54 hectares of vines, mostly in the Haut-Médoc appellation, Malleret is one of 14 Crus Bourgeois Exceptionnels.

Many moons ago I worked for the Maison de Luze in Bordeaux at a time when they were a subsidiary of Rémy Martin and owned the château. Going to Malleret for lunch with important clients was always a pleasure and the richly-furnished interior was as impressive as the outside. The late Marquis Bertrand du Vivier, an archetypical aristocrat, presided over such meals with a dignity worthy of such prestigious surroundings.

Built in classic Second Empire style in the 1860s, the striking château replaced a centuries-old structure. In the hands of the Clossman and Du Vivier families for many years, Malleret is now owned by Louis Oberkampf, related to the Clossmans, who can thus claim to have possessed the château for 150 years (except for the eight years it belonged to Rémy Martin).

The building and its grounds are listed historic monuments and to my mind the cellars are also among the most beautiful in Bordeaux.

On to the 2016 Château Malleret. The color made the wine seem older than its years, but not by much. The nose featured engaging notes of plum and lead, as well as subtle truffle overtones. This bouquet was soft and understated. The wine proved to be rather light on the palate. Seeing as I subject my wife to blind tasting, she guessed a very fine Médoc from not such a fine year. In the event, it was a mid-range Médoc from a very good year… 2016 is a great vintage in the Médoc and this wine, though relatively light in body, was well-structured. The follow-through on the aftertaste was attractive, but not very long. I came back to the wine the next day and it seemed to have put on more weight, but showed less elegance. It did lead to wonder about how often wines improve one, two, or three days after opening and it would be fascinating to organize a series of blind tastings to look into this.