1970 Château Cissac, Haut Medoc, Cru Bourgeois, Red Bordeaux, France.
A remarkably well preserved 1970 Bordeaux with a deep garnet color, fresh aromatics and a stunningly good medium bodied palate showing off its Cabernet Sauvignon dominate character in the glass, and without much air time it delivered an exceptionally rewarding performance. My friend Jacques, a mentor to me in my early days as a wine professional, dug this Château Cissac out of his cellar and brought it to a blind tasting, where almost no one guessed its age, to a person we believed it was at least 15 to 20 younger! This impressive wine from a lesser Château, but from a terroir tucked between Pauillac and Saint Estèphe, was nicely structured and surprisingly crisp in focus with black currant, loamy mulberry, cherry and blackberry fruits, which showed obviously less fruit forward qualities, more dried and stewed, but far more pure than one would expect, and gravelly accents, a touch of black olive, cedar, tobacco leaf, incense (dusty dried flowers), coffee grounds and mint remind you this is clearly a Medoc wine. The tannins are soft, but slightly grainy and there is some acidity still lifting this wine and maybe most enjoyable, while its age did creep in, it stayed well poised and pleasing until the last drop. Going through my notes, I am not certain I’ve had Château Cissac in my last three decades, but this 1970, a vintage that has turned out some gems, really won me over. Jacques, on a prior occasion a few years back, had also thrilled us with a bottle of 1970 Lynch Bages, another wine that way over performed expectations.
The Chateau Cissac, a family-owned estate in the northern part of Haut Medoc appellation, is a lesser known property, but has a solid track record and Château Cissac has been part of the Cru Bourgeois classification since its inception in 1932 and In 2018, it was awarded the status of Cru Bourgeois Supérieur. In recent years, the blend has been close to 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and about 3% Malbec grown in the outer Medoc’s gravelly soils, making for a pretty well structured wine with a Cabernet dominant profile. The winemaking, now in the hands of Marie Vialard, has remained faithful to tradition with carefully sorted and de-stemmed fruit and a cool maceration and fermentation in stainless steel, after which the wine is matured in classic French barrels for between 14 and 16 months with typically 30% new wood. Cissac sits in a plateau and has a similar terroir to its neighboring villages, Saint Estèphe and Pauillac, which is not too bad, and makes this Château a favorite of savvy bargain hunters of Bordeaux reds. Marie Vialard has managed the estate since 2000, as the winery notes, and is part of a family lineage that dates back to 1895 when Jacques Mondon, her ancestor, purchased the estate as a leisure property where wine was a secondary pursuit. Jacques’ grandson, Louis Vialard, inherited the property and turned it into a credible wine estate in the mid-20th century. Interestingly, he later moved to England to sell his Château Cissac wines and became a well respected wine merchant there. Cissac seems to be gaining a whole new following, and I look for to trying a more modern vintage soon, but I must admit this 1970 was exactly what I would like most from a bottle of Bordeaux!
($N/A $45-200 ESt.) 94 Points, grapelive