Chateau Rauzan-Gassies

The history of Chateau Rauzan-Gassies begins with the Rauzan estate, which gave birth to both Segla as well as Gassies. The original Rauzan estate was created by Pierre des Mesures de Rauzan, who in 1661 purchased a large portion of the Medoc around Cantenac. In fact his purchases were the origin not only of his eponymous estate but also of the Pichon vineyards, passing to the Longueville family through the marriage of his daughter Therese.

A Rauzan descendant Jean was said to have chartered a ship, loaded with his wines, and sailed to London and moored on the banks of Thames, setting up as a floating wine merchant. But because the locals were not eager to buy the wines, Jean ended up emptying the wines into the river, prompting the people to buy the wines.

The quality of the wines was good then, as suggested by the purchase from Thomas Jefferson on his visit there in 1787. Later it became fragmented as it passed from one generation of the family to the next, and in 1792 during the Revolution the property was divided between Pierre Louis de Segla, who took the majority share on marrying one Rauzan daughter, and a second daughter who married the Seigneur de Gassies.

The latter portion, perhaps one-third of the original estate, gave rise to the Rauzan-Gassies of today. The chateau went with Rauzan-Segla, and the modern-day proprietors live at another of their properties, Chateau Bel Orme Tronquoy de Lalande. In the 1855 classification, both the Rauzan estates were ranked as second growths.

The property passed through the hands of several different owners afterwards, including Rhone-Peraire who is credited with doing much to improve the estate. It was in 1946 that the estate came into the hands of the current proprietors, the Quie family. Paul Quie, a wine merchant from Bercy, acquired the estate and in 1968 he passed to his son Jean-Michel who in turn passed the baton to the next generation in 2001, brother-sister duo Jean-Philippe and Anne-Francoise.

The vineyards lie around Margaux and Cantenac, on typically gravel soils but some areas sand is more predominant. The size is 28.5 hectares in total, with 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. The average vine age is 35 years, planted at a density of 10000 vines per hectare, and harvested usually between 40-50 hl/ha.

Unlike many other classed growths, Rauzan-Gassies did use machine for harvesting, and with leaf removal part manual and part machine. The grapes are checked manually in the vineyard, and then machine do the rest, with Jean-Philippe an advocate for machine harvesting, not just because of labor shortage and cost.

After that the must sees a cold maceration lasting 48 hours, and up to 10% of the juice is bled off to give greater concentration in the final wine. There is temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel vats, followed by 12 months in oak, with 30% new barrels each vintage. The wines are blended by tasting, fined with egg white and bottled.

I have recently tasted the 2005 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, it has deep ruby color, with fading rims and legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium (+) intensity aromas of black fruit such as cassis, blackberry and dark cherries, mineral notes of earth, oak notes of cedar, animal notes of meaty and leather, maturity notes of tobacco, kernel notes of chocolate. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry with medium (+) acidity, the wine has medium (+) tannin of ripe and velvety texture, with medium alcohol and full body. It has medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as cassis, blackberry and plum, pungent spice of licorice, oak notes of cedar and vanilla. The wine has a medium finish.

Conclusion

Good quality Margaux with a fairly concentrated nose of good complexity, the nose has good acidity balancing the robust structure of the palate, with equally intense flavors of reasonable complexity. The wine is of a nice finish on the length, overall a nice wine of good ripeness. It is ready to drink now though can benefit from further ageing of another 2-3 years.