1 | Wine | Page 332

"The 2011 vintage included a very warm and dry winter and spring. These conditions led to being fruitful with small clusters and small berries with flavors of dark berry, cherry, hints of floral and mineral. This is a forward approachable wine that displays the beautiful floral/mineral character typical of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir."

"Delivers an almost inordinate diversity of floral, herbal, citrus, and pit-fruit elements. ...with the bitterness of fruit pits, smoky pungency of red currant and crushed stone, as well as notes of shrimp shell reduction and iodine inflecting a long, bittersweet, yet at the same time vibrant, buoyant finish. This silken textured seducer should gain with time in bottle and be worth following for ten or a dozen years." 93-94+ pts.

"Purple in color, it offers up aromas of spice box, lavender, and black cherry. Savory and forward in the glass, it is a grapy, succulent effort for drinking over the next 5 years as well as an excellent value."

"A very classic wine for patient connoisseurs, Sociando Mallet makes no compromises and continues to produce one of the finest wines among non-classified estates in Haut-Medoc. Dense purple to the rim, the opaque purple-colored 2010 offers up notes of graphite, blueberry and black raspberry fruit, a hint of cassis, some licorice and wet rocks. Deep, full-bodied and almost excruciatingly tannic, this full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall style of wine needs at least 8-10 years of cellaring and should keep for three decades or more." -Robert Parker

"Dark Ruby red color offers aromas of candied cherry, black currant along with spice notes of mace, sage and vanilla. The palate is soft and polished with fine grain tannin, candied plum and cassis. There is a hint of chocolate on the finish."

"Refined, with a sweet, smoky undercurrent to the flavors of glazed pear, candied lemon zest and golden raisin, with a hint of marzipan. Racy acidity frames—but doesn't dominate—the wine, with a spicy note lingering on the finish."