The prestigious village of Margaux is famous for being home to 22 of the great wine producers ranked in the 1855 classification of the Médoc, including the likes of Château Margaux itself, Châteaux Palmer, and many others that sell for hundreds of euros a bottle. Many of those estates were split up from larger estates when they were passed on from generation to generation, including Léoville and Pichon Longueville, as well as Rauzan itself, which was split into Rauzan-Ségla and Rauzan-Gassies.
By the time the classification of the Médoc took place in 1855, these estates were already split up, so Rauzan-Gassies was recognized for its own wines rather than those of its parent terroir. While the Rauzan family was still in charge, the wines excelled. Noted historical Bordeaux wine lover Thomas Jefferson was a known customer, buying many cases.
Since the division in 1792, at the height of the French revolution, the property changed hands numerous times. Presumably, up until 1855, the quality was maintained, if not improved, but over the years that followed, it began to fall into neglect. In 1946, it was purchased by the Quié family, whose descendants still run the estate today, as well as two others: Château Bel-Orme Tronquoy-de-Lalande, an Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois; Château Croizet-Bages, a 5th Grand Cru Classé from Pauillac; and, of course, the Margaux in question, Château Rauzan-Gassies.
These days, it is the brother-sister duo of Jean-Philippe and Anne-Françoise who run the production, with father Jean-Michel looking on from the sidelines.
The vineyards themselves are mostly in gravelly soils, although some are in sandy areas. In general, this means that filtration is very good, and that the risk of flooding to the vines is minimal. Of the nearly 30 hectares in total, roughly 65% are Cabernet Sauvignon, a quarter are Merlot, and the remainder split fairly evenly between Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, which can be considered as a sort of Cabernet on steroids.
The vines are, on average, in their late thirties or early forties, which means they are in their prime. They are planted rather densely, which means that in the 30 hectare estate, there are some 300 000 vines producing wine grapes. The better estates would have a lower vine density to prevent transfer of disease, among other things.
One area in which Rauzan-Gassies really differs from its competition in is that much of the work is done by machine, whereas in the majority of other vineyards in the region, all work is done by human hand. Summer leaf removal is part manual, but the harvest is almost entirely conducted by machine. After harvest, the grape must is cold-macerated for 48 hours and then put through temperature-controlled fermentation in steel vats, before making it's way into oak barrels – part French part American – where it spends a year under regular supervision. At the end of the ageing process, egg whites are whisked into the barrels where they collect the sediments, and the wine is bottled.
In the top Margaux properties, the wines are aged for upwards of 18 months, so it appears that Rauzan-Gassies employ a bit of a shortcut in this regard. Another shortcut is that only 30% of the barrels are new for each vintage, but then, the strong perfume of oak in Médocian wines is not to everyone's flavour.
Thus, after a brief tour of the property's main building, we arrived at the tasting table, ready to sample a few of the Quié estates' fine vintages.
The first wine offered was the 2004 Château Bel-Orme Tronquoy-de-Lalande, the Cru Bourgeois of the Haut-Médoc appellation. This was a nice Bordeaux wine, for lack of the inspiration required for coming up with a better word, with good balance, a pleasant Cabernet-dominated aroma, and decent persistence. In hind sight, this would be the best of the three wines tasted, but still not particularly inspiring, ranking between 3.5 and 4 out of five.
The second was the fifth growth, the Château Croizet-Bages from Pauillac, also a 2004. This was the worst of the three; imbalanced with too much sourness, an aroma that signalled potential but, ultimately, one that was untapped. The wine was disappointing, though not especially bad, so I would give it between 2.5 and 3 out of five.
Finally, it was time to taste the tour-de-force, the Rauzan-Gassies Margaux, yet again a 2004. Its noble status as a Deuxième Grand Cru Classé meant that I was looking forward to this one the most, and perhaps because of this, my expectations were a little too high for, alas, I found the wine to be quite underwhelming.
I am not one to mince words, so let's call a spade a spade: the wine was mediocre. That isn't to say it was bad – far from it – just very average without anything particularly memorable about it. Perhaps that is too harsh, as it was certainly towards the good end of mediocrity, but for a wine of such stature, more is required. I would find it hard to justify spending ten euros on a bottle, let alone thirty or more.
It's possible that the problem was that the Rauzan staff chose a particularly poor vintage in the 2004 to represent their estate, but if that is the case, they are fully responsible for choosing the ambassadors to their vineyards that they do. Furthermore, the truly great properties produce exquisite wines even in the poorer years.
This isn't an indictment of the Quié family, however, as by all accounts, they have actually increased the quality of Rauzan-Gassies wines since taking over control in the forties; but they still have a very long way to go if they want to restore this estate to true second growth status. Otherwise, that their wine continues to receive it's second growth classification is an indictment against the classification system itself. However, the wine does retail for significantly less then other second growths – or even many third or fourth growths, for that matter – which means that the 1855 classification is not the be all and end all for the Médoc wine market. Indeed, in what can be considered a triumph of the free market, quality seems to be the main component of prices.
One suggestion for improvement is a manual harvest of the berries, which could improve quality by the more diligent culling of berries that are not quite ripe or in any other way unfit to go into the first wine. In general, it would benefit Château Rauzan-Gassies greatly if the culture of shortcuts was replaced by a new culture of pedantry and insistence on quality.
The 2004 Rauzan-Gassies Margaux scores a 3 up to 3.5 out of five in my system, but that's as much as I can give it.
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Wines reviewed:
2004 Château Bel-Orme Tronquoy-de-Lalande Haut-Médoc ♣♣♣*
2004 Château Croizet-Bages Pauillac ♣♣*
2004 Château Rauzan-Gassies Margaux ♣♣♣
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