Sociando mallet

CHATEAU SOCIANDO-MALLET Haut-Médoc

LOCATION

Sociando-Mallet

An ideal location on the river side

Traditional fishing cabins

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

Jean Gautreau, owner since 1969

Jean Gautreau Sylvie Gautreau and Arthur

DESCRIPTION OF THE VINEYARD

85 hectares, 75 ha of which with beautiful gravels on a deep clay subsoil

A perfect exposure, sloping gently towards the estuary

The Calupeyre mound, remarkable gravel terroir

The Cabernet Sauvignon, king of the MÊdoc – 48 % of the planted vine varieties

The Merlot, 47% of the planted vine varieties, brings fruit et roundness to the wine

A density of plantation of 8330 plants/ha and an average age of 35 years

Château Sociando-Mallet 400 to 450 000 bottles/year Produced by the great terroir of the property, namely 75% of the production.

Blending : 55% CS, 40% M et 5% CF

La Demoiselle de Sociando A wine produced on the clay and limestone plots and by the young vines, namely 100 to150 000 btls/year.

Blending : 50% M, 50% CS

ÂŤ Jean Gautreau Âť An original production of 4 000 btls/year, stemming from the blending of 15 barrels chosen by Jean Gautreau.

THE INSTALLATIONS

Concrete vat-room

Office

Wooden vats

hangars

Harvest receipt

Ageing cellars

Steel vatroom

Tasting room

bottling and packaging unit

TRADITIONAL METHODS OF WORK

Guyot double pruning We keep 3 buds by cane.

The ÂŤ complantation Âť, in order to replace the dead stocks

The mecanical trimming and topping of the vines

Is done by hand during august in order to protect the bunches.

The soil is ploughed two times a year and scraped between the ploughings.

We don’t do green harvest and we don’t thin out the leaves.

At the end of september, we harvest by hand in small crates.

A part of the Sociando-Mallet’s team during the 2009 harvest

The bunches are sorted by hand on two tables.

After de stemming, the berries are gently crushed and send into the vats.

Traditional vinification by pumping over, with natural yeasts.

At the end of the vatting time, we run off the free run wine.

We rack off the pomace and press it.

Press wine and free-run wine are doing the malolactic fermentation in the vats.

Then, a tasting of the different vats allows us to determine the blending for the first and the second wine.

THE AGEING OF THE WINE

We age our wines in french new oak barrels.

100% of Sociando-Mallet and 20% of the Demoiselle, during 11 to 12 months.

We rack the barrels every 3 months.

The wine is then clarified by gravity.

The racking is done by the plug.

We don’t fine the wines.

We make a filtration just for the Demoiselle.

We use an herb, called ÂŤ matrasse Âť to wrap the plug stoppers.

We have our own bottling unit. So we are able to control each step of the process.

TASTING