1990 Chateau Gazin Pomerol

Château GAZIN’s vineyard covers an area of 26 hectares, in a single holding, on the upper terrace of the Pomerol terroir. The terroir at Château Gazin consists of Gunzian gravel on the surface and a subsoil of blue and green clay with iron oxides (iron residues). As is characteristic of great terroirs, these clays (smectites) ensure that the vines have a reasonably stable supply of water. Château GAZIN’s terroir essentially consists of the clay-gravel subsoil of the Pomerol plateau. The vineyard is planted with 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 35 years. The vines are planted with a density of 5,500 to 7,000 per hectare. The vines are cultivated using traditional growing methods and an environmentally-friendly approach with ploughing, organic fertilizers, minimum use of pesticides (including mating disruption), and manual harvests.

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.

Fermentation 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 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.