2003 Sociando Mallet Cuvee Jean Gautreau
Regular price $149.98
55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc. The vineyard covers 85 hectares and has an average vine age of 40 years. Low Guyot pruning. Average yield is 55 hectoliters per hectare. Grapes are hand harvested in small crates and 100% destemmed. Malolactic fermentation takes place in concrete-lined stainless steel vats for 20 to 25 days. Only native yeasts are used. The wine is aged in oak barrels for 12 months, 100% new. Racked every three months during the course of ageing, the wine was then bottled unfined.
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Quite simply one of the best and most respected winemakers in all of Bordeaux, Jean Gautreau has been creating some of the world's finest wines at Château Sociando-Mallet in Haut-Médoc for nearly a half-century.
In 1995, the cellarmaster of Sociando-Mallet had the idea of selecting fifteen barrels from among sixty to make a blend called "Cuvée Jean Gautreau." The choice of barrels was made during a blind tasting after one year of aging. The cellarmaster, the daughter/oenologist, Sylvie Gautreau, and Jean Gautreau evaluated wine from each barrel. The fifteen highest scoring barrels were blended and put into special bottles labeled as Cuvée Jean Gautreau. The eponymous wine has a higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon than Sociando-Mallet. While somewhat austere in its youth, it reaches its full potential with extended aging in the bottle.
Jean Gautreau is simply another version, indeed another vision, of the Sociando-Mallet spirit, offering a different blend from the estate's leading wine, the taste of a captured moment. It is neither more concentrated, or better, or a luxury product, or a marketing gimmick. It is just another way of approaching the exceptional gravelly terroir and extra-low yields from the same vineyards which produce Sociando-Mallet.
Jean never intended to make his namesake wine available to the public during his lifetime. Instead, he planned it as a legacy for Sylvie, so he produced the wine every year since 1995, bottled them, and kept them at the back of the cellar to age gracefully to be eventually released after his passing. Finally, in 2013, Jean changed his mind and decided to release 12 vintages, 1995 thru 2006, all at once. Jean Gautreau passed away in 2019 at the age of 92. His legacy lives on and drinking fantastic bottles of Sociando-Mallet and Jean Gautreau will be a constant reminder of his role as a pioneer in the world of wine.
Shipping Policy
- Unless your delivery address is on the West Coast, we strongly discourage you from selecting “Ground Service” as your shipping method. During the winter and summer months, weather conditions (temperature) and longer delivery times can often result in the spoilage of your order. It doesn’t make sense to invest in fine wines and then take the chance of ruining them due environmental factors during transit (faster and safer delivery generally isn’t much more expensive). We don’t make an additional profit on accelerated delivery, but we frequently recommend faster shipping options to our customers outside the West Coast.
- You must be 21 years of age to order or receive alcoholic beverages. Any shipments containing alcoholic beverages are sent with an “Adult Signature Required” sticker, and the common carrier that delivers our merchandise is required to ask and check for identification upon delivery. This means that an adult will have to be present at the time of delivery. Please consider shipping to an office address.
- During periods of extreme weather, we attempt to ship wines at the beginning of each week in order to get shipments to you before the weekend. This is because we have no control over the temperature conditions at our freight carriers’ warehouses. The result may be that your shipment doesn’t go out the day that you place an order.
- We ship by Fedex or Fedex Ground. Our prices include packaging materials. Insurance may be available for an additional charge.
- Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. will arrange for shipment on behalf of the buyer, to an address specified by the buyer, provided that Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. in its sole judgment believes that such shipment will not subject Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. to the risk of any sort of legal action or other harm. If a buyer lives in a state where the direct shipment of wine by Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. violates the law, we suggest that the buyer provide an alternative address in another state or have their wine shipped to a third-party storage facility in a direct shipping-friendly state.
- Various states impose limitations on the quantity of alcoholic beverages that may be purchased and brought into their jurisdiction by a purchaser from another state without requiring the purchaser, a seller or shipper to possess certain licenses or permits. Vintage Wine Merchants, Inc. does not, as a condition of sale, assume any obligation nor bear any responsibility whatsoever for applying or obtaining any permits or licenses. Therefore, we recommend that you investigate the possibility of such limitations, and determine the manner in which alcoholic beverages shall be brought into your state from California, so as to comply with all of your state’s requirements.
- Wine shipping rules in the United States are controlled by the state you live in. We do not ship wine to the following states at this time:
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Kansas - Kentucky
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Maryland - Massachusetts
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List Updated 2/1/2023
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Vintage Wine Merchants
377 Santana Row, Suite 1135
San Jose, CA 95128
408-260-1115
