Château Gazin 2009

The 2009 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 99/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: An ideal sun-drenched season carried the style of seduction to its peak: sumptuous, fleshy wines, immediately accessible.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

This vintage is powerful, full-bodied, with a dark, intense Bordeaux-red color. It shows toasted notes, of black fruit, cherry, liquorice, spice. Its tannins are supple and round, yet present. The wine is rich, sumptuous, with plenty of substance and a long finish. It deserves 8 to 12 years of cellar ageing and can be kept for 25 to 30 years without difficulty.

Blend of the 2009 vintage

Figures from the 2009 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 35 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Alcoholic fermentations take place in small concrete vats, variety by variety and plot by plot, followed by a period of maceration of the juice with the skins, for two to three weeks.

Ageing

In barrel for 18 months (50% renewed each year)

Terroir

The vineyard of Château Gazin covers an area of 26 ha in a single block, situated on the high terrace of the Pomerol terroir. The terroir of Château Gazin is made up of Günzian gravels at the surface and, in the subsoil, blue and green clays containing iron oxides (crasse de fer). These clays (smectites) provide the vine with a regular and moderate supply of water, a characteristic of the great terroirs. The clay-gravel subsoil of the Pomerol plateau makes up the essential part of Château Gazin’s terroir. The vineyard is planted with 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 35 years.