Chateau Rauzan-Gassies (Futures Pre-sale) 2009
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Tannin dominated wine, very solid, chunky. It has a very dry, firm core, with the surrounding fruit extracted and tight, just a final hint of juiciness.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 Points -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A masculine-styled, dense purple-colored 2009, this cuvee offers up scents of charcoal, asphalt, black currants, incense, and crushed rocks. This deep, medium to full-bodied, well-made Margaux is broader, richer, and more substantial than usual, with more alcohol as well as substance. The tannins are ripe and well-integrated. This is a 30-year wine.
Barrel Sample: 89-91 Points -
Wine Spectator
A pleasant young wine, with berry and currant character that follows through to a medium body, with a simple finish.
Barrel Sample: 87-90 Points
Grapes are hand-picked. Fermentations last about 3 weeks in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, with frequent pumping-overs and addition of yeasts. Wines are afterward transferred to oak barrels, of which 25% are new, for 14-18 months aging. They are fined and filtered prior to bottling. No press wine is added into the grand vin.
The vineyards of Rauzan-Gassies are situated on alluvial terraces. Sixty percent of them are situated just around the chateau itself, and the remaining vineyards (gravelly soils) border Chateau Margaux, Palmer, and Lascombes.
In style, Rauzan-Gassies tends toward heaviness and corpulence for a Margaux, without the fragranceor finesse normally associated with the better wines of this commune. However, it can make fairly concentrated, powerful wines. In most vintages, the wines of Rauzan-Gassies have reached maturity surprisingly fast for a classified growth, usually within 7-8 years of the vintage.