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  • Country ranking ?

    1 787
  • Producer ranking ?

    32
  • Decanting time

    45min
  • When to drink

    Now
  • Food Pairing

    Beef

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The Story

Feminine and seductive, due to the dominance of the Merlot, Château GAZIN's wines can be enjoyed after a few years in the bottle, but usually they are worth laying down for fifteen, twenty years or more. Their sumptuous generosity offers a wide aromatic range of red and black fruit which harmonizes with their intense crimson or garnet red colour. They typically offer hints of plum, chocolate, coffee or liquorice, with aromas of almonds, toast, tobacco and vanilla, and a minty freshness.

With maturity they develop a spicy nose, with a hint of truffles, notes of undergrowth, game, fur and leather…

 

The harvests are carried out by hand, as each plot reaches perfect ripeness. The grapes undergo an initial sorting in the vineyard, carried out by the pickers. 

Two further sorting stages take place in the vat room, before and after removal of the stalks, to optimize the quality of the fruit.

Alcoholic fermentation takes place in small concrete vats, separated by grape variety and plot, the juice and skins are then left to macerate for two to three weeks. 

The free-run wine is then drawn off and kept separate from the wine obtained by pressing the residue ("marc"). The second fermentation, or malolactic fermentation, is then carried out, each grape variety being kept separate, either in barrels or vats, depending on the quality of the batches.The wines are then transferred to oak barrels (50% new barrels).

They mature for eighteen months, during which the wines are progressively blended during meticulous rackings approximately every three months.

The contact with the fine lees and the oak tannins gradually adds structure and complexity, enabling the production of wines that can be laid down and that will improve over time.he estate can produce up to 100,000 bottles.

A second wine, an AOP Pomerol, l'Hospitalet de Gazin, was created in 1986 so that Château GAZIN could be made with only the best grapes from each harvest.After being bottled and placed in wooden cases on the property, the wine is distributed all over the world by wine merchants in Bordeaux. 86% of Château GAZIN's production is sold to wine lovers outside of France.

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Vintage 1961

1961 - the greatest Bordeaux vintage of all time?

I am writing this during the primeur campaign and I notice that Bordeaux château owners and merchants have been exceptionally quiet this year. I've been following this part of the market remotely for almost 30 years now and have been told about a lot of the "vintages of the century". Once wines are bottled and sold or vice versa, as is the case in Bordeaux, these claims tend to be changed.

Who are the serious contenders for the title of “The Greatest Vintage Ever”?

During the 19th century there were a number of vintages with great reputations made from pre-phylloxera vines. These include the legendary "Vintage Comet" 1811, 1864, 1865, 1870, 1893, 1895 and 1899. Most are too old for anyone now alive to have tasted them in their prime.

During the 20th century, claims were raised for the vintages 1900, 1921, 1929, 1945, 1947, 1949 (by me), 1959, 1961, 1982, 1989 and 1990.In the current century already three of the eight vintages produced – 2000, 2003 and 2005 – were mentioned by an overly excited press as candidates for the title, as well as the superb duo - 2009 and 2010.

In the book “The 1,000 Best Wines Ever Made” 1961 is the Bordeaux vintage most often mentioned, with 22 châteaux. 1945 is mentioned 19 times, 1947 16 times, 1982 14 times and 1959 13 times.

What is the definition of a great wine?

It’s a wine that has an extra dimension giving you an unforgettable drinking experience – in other words, a “Wow!” effect. ". It is a wine that has a long drinking life. It should be good to drink young, but it should also be able to age for a long time without losing its appeal. A good vintage produces wines that meet these requirements.

A great vintage, however, is equally good in all major regions of Bordeaux, both on the left bank and the right bank. It’s also a vintage where something special was produced in every appellation, from the lowest Cru Bourgeois to the most powerful Premier Cru.

1961 meets these requirements better than any other vintage.

This was the vintage where the most incompetent winemaker simply couldn't make a bad wine and the wines drank very well at an early stage; In most cases, they still do this today.

Some extremely impressive wines were produced in 1945, but these came primarily from the Left Bank and many of the wines had excessively high tannin levels, making them increasingly dry as they aged.

1947 produced the most amazing Right Bank wines, but many Left Bank wines had problems with volatile acidity.

1959 has produced a number of wines that are on the same level and sometimes even a bit higher than the corresponding '61, and some experienced wine critics like Michel Bettane prefer 1959 to 1961. But 1959 does not have the same consistent quality at all levels.

1982 undoubtedly produced a lot of very impressive wines but I have the impression that the Right Bank wines lack structure and have not aged very well and that very few Margaux and Médoc wines have had a great success. The twin vintages of 1989 and 1990, or 2009 and 2010 may come closest in overall quality, but it is still too early to judge their aging capabilities.

 

What made 1961 so special?

It was a very small harvest, the smallest since World War II. This was partly due to coulure (cold weather at flowering) and in some parts due to frost on the night of May 30-31, together reducing the yield per plant to about a third of the usual size at that time. period (which, compared to today's harvests, seems tiny). This concentrated the minerals and power of the vine among the few remaining grapes and was the reason for the success of minor châteaux, which would normally produce much higher yields than would be good for their wines.

August and September were hot and extremely dry. This drought meant that maturation took longer than the 100 days usually prescribed. The harvest was delayed until September 22, but benefited from perfect conditions. Thanks to better aging techniques, winemakers avoid the harsh tannins of 1945 and the volatility of 1947. The wines have a very deep color, an attractive nose and a ripe, concentrated and full-bodied fruitiness, with sufficient tannins and acidity to give the wines structure and freshness.

I organized a large tasting of over sixty years from 1961 to 1989 and all the wines were very good, even from small châteaux

 

 

 

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Written Notes

The 1961 Gazin evinces a time when this Pomerol just did not cut the mustard. It has a strangely enervated bouquet that can be analogized to a flightless bird. The palate is simple and rather flat with dried rustic fruit, touches of tobacco and tar, but the hollow finish indicates a wine that is not only past its best, but probably never that good in the first place. Tasted at the 1961 dinner Chairman Miaow’s in Hong Kong.

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Origin

Pomerol, Bordeaux

Other wines from this producer

L' Hospitalet de Gazin

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