The Château Sociando-Mallet 2013 is a firm, cedar-scented Haut-Médoc from Bordeaux, built on cabernet sauvignon and merlot in a leaner, more classical mould than the run of vintages before it. Expect blackcurrant and graphite rather than plush fruit, with the tannin still doing plenty of the talking.

Aromatics lean savoury: cassis and dark plum, dried tobacco leaf, pencil shavings and a touch of bay leaf. Air brings out something earthier, almost gravelly, along with cured meat and cool blackberry.

The palate is medium-bodied and tightly drawn, with fine, slightly chalky tannin running the length of it and acidity that keeps everything upright. Fruit sits in the middle rather than out front, and the finish is dry, long and faintly bitter in the way good Médoc often is, closing on cedar and iron.

The 2013 growing season across Bordeaux was a genuinely hard one — a cold, wet flowering cut yields badly, particularly for merlot, and picking came early under threatening weather. That shows here as a wine of restraint and structure rather than opulence, which is no bad thing at the table.

Pour it with roast lamb shoulder, a rare porterhouse, duck with lentils, or a wedge of hard sheep's cheese. Decant an hour ahead and drink between now and around 2030, while the tannins still have some grip left in them.