Wine List

Still tasting like a barrel sample, the 1986 Mouton Rothschild is a monumental Bordeaux that will undoubtedly outlive anybody alive today. Amazingly youthful, with a dense purple color, it is an extraordinary wine that should age for a century or more. Tasted blind, I would have guessed it to be a 2-3 year old first-growth Bordeaux.

Score: 100 Robert Parker, Hedonists Gazette, February 2006

Score: 100 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (4), December 2003

An enormously concentrated, massive Mouton Rothschild, comparable in quality, but not style, to the 1982, 1959, and 1945, this impeccably made wine is still in its infancy.....I suspect the 1986 Mouton Rothschild requires a minimum of 15-20 more years of cellaring; it has the potential to last for 50-100 years!...A compelling wine! Last tasted, 3/98.

Score: 100 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (3), November 1998

After stumbling over some wines I thought were high class Bordeaux, I nailed this wine in one of the blind tastings for this article. In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets, the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive). To put it mildly, the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild held its own (and then some), in a flight that included the Caymus Special Selection, Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard. Clearly the youngest looking, most opaque and concentrated wine of the group, it tastes as if it has not budged in development since I first tasted it out of barrel in March, 1987. An enormously concentrated, massive Mouton-Rothschild, comparable in quality, but not style, to the 1982, 1959, and 1945, this impeccably made wine is still in its infancy. Interestingly, when I was in Bordeaux several years ago, I had this wine served to me blind from a magnum that had been opened and decanted 48 hours previously. Even then, it still tasted like a barrel sample! I suspect the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild requires a minimum of 15-20 more years of cellaring; it has the potential to last for 50-100 years! Given the outrageously high prices being fetched by so many of the great 1982s and 1990s (and lest I forget, the 1995 Bordeaux futures), it appears this wine might still be one of the "relative bargains" in the fine wine marketplace. I wonder how many readers will be in shape to drink it when it does finally reach full maturity? Drink 2011 - 2096

Score: 100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (106), August 1996

The 1986 Mouton-Rothschild is a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot that was picked from 2 October until 16 October. Winemaker Philippe Dhalluin, who was not working at the property back then, told me that the pH was fairly low at 3.54 when it is usually around 3.75, due to the natural tartaric acid in the vines. It has a powerful and intense bouquet as always: exemplary graphite and cedar scents, a touch of black pepper and incense. It seems to unfurl in the glass, like a motor revving its engine. The palate is beautifully balanced with its trademark firm tannic structure, a Mouton-Rothschild with backbone and masculinity. Layers of black fruit intermingling with mint and graphite, a hint of licorice emanating from the Merlot, gently fanning out and my God, it is incredibly long. It is not like the 1985 Mouton-Rothschild that is so fleshy and generous. This is serious, aristocratic Mouton, a true vin de garde and yes, I do think drinkers will have to wait until it reaches its true peak. Sometimes that's just the way it is. Tasted September 2016.

Score: 100 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (228), December 2016

This estate's staff believes that the 1996 Mouton Rothschild is far more complex than the 1995, but less massive. I agree that among the first growths, this wine is exuberant, flamboyant bouquet of roasted coffee, cassis, smoky oak, and soy sauce. The 1996 Mouton Rothschild offers impressive aromas of black currants, framboise, coffee, and new saddle leather. This full-bodied, ripe, rich, concentrated, superbly balanced wine is paradoxical in the sense that the aromatics suggest a far more evolved wine than the flavours reveal. Anticipated: 2007-2030.

Score: 94+ Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (4), December 2003

Made from a blend virtually identical to the 1995 (72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc), the 1996 has taken on weight and richness since I tasted it in spring 1997. An opaque purple colour is accompanied by an impressive, somewhat undeveloped but gorgeously pure crême de cassis nose with Asian spices, licorice, and smoaky oak in the background. Sweet, full-bodied, powerful, and rich, with formidable extract, ripe tannin, and a layered impression, this wine builds to a blockbuster finish. I am super-impressed by this wine's evolution during 1997, as it now looks to be a great Mouton which I underrated when I first tasted it. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2030. Last tasted 3/98.

Score: 94/96 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (3), November 1998

This estate’s staff believes that the 1996 Mouton Rothschild is far more complex than the 1995 but less massive. I agree that among the first-growths, this wine is showing surprising forwardness and complexity in its aromatics. It possesses an exuberant, flamboyant bouquet of roasted coffee, cassis, smoky oak and soy sauce. The impressive 1996 Mouton Rothschild offers impressive aromas of black currants, framboise, coffee, and new saddle leather. This full-bodied, ripe, rich, concentrated, superbly balanced wine is paradoxical in the sense that the aromatics suggest a far more evolved wine than the flavours reveal. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030. By the way, the 1996 blend was identical to the 1995 – 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc.

Score: 94 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (122), April 1999

Tasted at the "First Growth" lunch in London. Not quite as exuberant as the bottle served blind at Farr's horizontal, but still a great Mouton. The nose is tighter than last time but will those similar traits of blackberry, cedar, cooked meats, perhaps here with just a tiny touch of greenness. The palate is medium-bodied with a lovely rounded texture, but underneath that has great structure and focus. Packed full of cedar towards the finish, never taking its eye off the ball, very tannic on the finish. This one is definitely for the cellar. Drink 2012-2030.

Score: 95 Neal Martin, eRobertParker.com, May 2009

Very savoury nose. Dense and thick and sweet but not ethereal. Still very embryonic. Chewy tannins. Very correct and racy. Drink 2010-25

Score: 19 Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, September 2006

 
98 / 100 - ROBERT PARKER

A sensational effort, the 2006 Mouton Rothschild exhibits an opaque purple color as well as a classic Mouton perfume of creme de cassis, flowers, blueberries, and only a hint of oak. Dalhuin told me that in whisky barrel-tasting vintages such as 1989 and 1990, Mouton was aged in heavily-toasted barrels, and they have backed off to a much lighter toast for the barrels’ interior. I think this has worked fabulously well with the cassis quality fruit they get from their Cabernet Sauvignon. The full-bodied, powerful 2006 possesses extraordinary purity and clarity. A large-scaled, massive Mouton Rothschild that ranks as one of the top four or five wines of the vintage, it may turn out to be the longest-lived wine of the vintage by a landslide. The label will undoubtedly be controversial as a relative of Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud, has painted a rather comical Zebra staring aimlessly at what appears to be a palm tree in the middle of a stark courtyard. I suppose a psychiatrist could figure out the relationship between that artwork and wine, but I couldn’t see one. This utterly profound Mouton will need to sleep for 15+ years before it will reveal any secondary nuances, but it is a packed and stacked first-growth Pauillac of enormous potential. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2060+. Robert Parker,Wine Advocate February 2009

Only 49% of the production made it into the 2010 Mouton Rothschild, which has a strikingly beautiful label by Jeffrey Koons. This is a truly great wine, with a very high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (94%) and the other 6% Merlot. At 13.9% natural alcohol, Mouton's director, Philippe Dhalluin, has clearly produced another 50- to 60-year wine that has a chance at perfection in about 15 years time, when I suspect this wine will be rounding into drinking condition. It is dense, rich and full-bodied, with the classic Mouton creme de cassis, forest floor, licorice and floral notes, but also some blueberry and hints of subtle espresso and mulberry. The wine has more minerality and precision than the rich, extravagantly opulent 2009, and while that may please some, others will have their patience tested as they wait and wait for this compelling Mouton Rothschild to hit full maturity. Score: 98+