Sociando Mallet 2008

Performing far better from bottle than it did from cask, the full-bodied 2008 offers abundant notes of plums, blueberries and black raspberries interwoven with hints of white flowers, damp earth and background oak. This impressively endowed, muscular effort will benefit from 2-4 years of cellaring and should keep for two decades.

An opaque deep ruby/purple color is followed by a seemingly still austere and angular wine with high tannin. It is another example of a 2008 that either finished malolactic very late, or is still going through it. An unfinished character suggests there is more to this wine, but it needs to flesh out and reveal more fruit depth. At present, it is somewhat of a gamble given its high tannic profile, but the concentration is there.