1999 Malescot St. Exupéry

Jean-Luc Zuger describes his young 2001 as "better balanced than the 2000 in the best sense." After Malescot's previous chef de culture retired prior to the 2001 growing season, the estate carried out a more serious green harvest than in the past and ultimately produced just 35 hectoliters per hectare, down sharply from 52 in 2000. The warm wine goes straight to 100% new barrels (some of the malolactic often occurs in cuve), where the lees are stirred until May. Minimal handling is the rule here: the '99, according to Zuger, was bottled without fining or filtration.

This estate, quietly making excellent wine in recent years, did substantial crop-thinning and aeration of the fruit in 2000 but still produced a rather full 52 hectoliters per hectare. Malescot typically carries out a saignee of 5% to 20% to concentrate its must, and in 2000 used osmose inverse for the first time, raising the potential alcohol of the cabernet sauvignon no more than 5%. But no concentrating techniques were used for the merlot, which was harvested with potential alcohol in the 13.5% range. According to Jean-Luc Zuger, the estate has done less microbullage this year because the tannins are not hard and the wines don't need extra oxygenation. And the estate has done considerable stirring of the lees, a technique it undertook in force with the '99. Zuger emphasized that the sample I tasted was not "the final final blend," and that it was taken from all new barrels.

Jean-Luc Zuger, the nephew of the owner of this estate, got the green light to make wholesale changes here in '94, and the estate has been on the upswing ever since. Among the steps taken at the recommendation of consulting enologist Michel Rolland have been the introduction of temperature control, reorganization of the cellar to minimize pumping of the wine, and an increase in the percentage of new oak to 80%. Today 80% of the malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel, and the lees are stirred for a good six months. The estate will attempt to cut cabernet sauvignon yields to 35 to 40 hectoliters per hectare (the estate-wide yield was 50 h/h in '99), which Zuger feels will make a big difference in the quality of the wine. "Elegance and femininity, which are hallmarks of Margaux wines, does not have to mean lack of concentration," notes Zuger. Beginning with the 2000 harvest, Malescot Saint-Exupery will have a new device, previously used in the South of France, which Zuger describes as like a hand destemmer, designed to take off only the riper grapes. "Everyone in Margaux will be here to see it; we'll see if it works."