Château Gazin 2012

The 2012 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 90/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Merlots brought in just before the rain made for a vintage markedly more successful than on the Left Bank.

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

Feminine and charming, owing to the dominance of Merlot, the wines of Château Gazin drink agreeably after a few years of ageing, but most often deserve to wait fifteen, twenty years or more. Their sumptuous generosity offers a wide aromatic palette of red and black fruit that harmonizes with their intense purple or garnet color. They also most often deliver nuances of plum, chocolate, coffee or liquorice, aromas of almond, toasted bread, tobacco and vanilla, and a mint freshness. Maturity gives them a spiced nose, notes of truffle, undergrowth and animal notes: game, fur, leather...

Blend of the 2012 vintage

Figures from the 2012 sheet

• 14 % vol.Alcohol
• 39 hl/haYield
• 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.