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  • Country ranking ?

    392
  • Producer ranking ?

    15
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    Noisettes of venison with sauce grand veneur

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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Parker 100 points/ 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?

 

At 26 years old, the most incredible roses-in-full-bloom, cassis bouquet - almost hyacinths. Huge black fruit intensity and density, with coffee beans at the end. In 2015, so thick-textured and full of blackcurrants. Serena Sutcliffe, MW WA 100

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The Story

Château Mouton Rothschild A Premier Cru Classé in 1973, Château Mouton Rothschild, owned by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, consists of 205 acres of vines near Pauillac, in the Médoc, North West of the city of Bordeaux. This Premier Cru benefits from exceptionally good natural conditions, both in the quality of the soil, the position of its vines and their exposure to the sun. It is regarded today as one of the world's greatest wine. 


The name Mouton is said to be derived from the word „Motte“ meaning mound or elevation of the ground. It was bought in 1853 by Philippe de Rothschilds great-grand father it was in a fairly bad shape and when the classification of 1855 was set up it was not deemed to be good enough to be qualified as a first growth but put in first place amongst the second growths. An injustice it took Philippe de Rothschild until 1973 to rectify. 1920s Philippe de Rothschild called together the owners of Haut Brion, Latour, Lafite, Margaux and Yquem to talk about the idea of bottling and marketing their wines on their own.

The first vintage to be bottled exclusivly at the château was the 1924 vintage. To commemorate this, the cubistic painter Carlu was asked to design the label, yet another revolutionary idea in this most conservative of surroundings. The idea of an artist designing the labels was dropped until 1945 when Philippe Jullian was asked to design a label commemorating the victory over nazi Germany. Since then works of such famous artists as Picasso, Miró, Dali, Chagall and personalities like John Huston and Prince Charles have been used for the labels.


In 1988, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, who had already been associated with her father's work for some time, succeeded her father. She has in turn become the guarantor of the quality of an illustrious wine whose motto proudly proclaims : "Premier je suis, second je fus, Mouton ne change". First I am, second I was, I Mouton do not change

Vineyard soil: very deep gravel on a limestone base Production area: 82.5 ha Grape varieties: 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot Average age of vines: 48 years Harvest method: hand picked. The grapes from the younger vines are harvested first and vinified separately.

Winemaking: Before destemming, the grapes are hand-sorted then selected one by one. Vinification depends on each vintage and the characteristics of each vat. All the relevant parameters, such as temperature, pumping over, aeration, vatting time and running off, are monitored by the technical manager, the cellar-master and the laboratory.
Ageing: 19 to 22 months in oak barrels (almost all new, the percentage varying according to the vintage)
 

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Wine Information

Climatic conditions at the Château / A mild and wet January was followed by cold and dry weather in February and March.
The vegetation cycle began later than average, on 30 April, but soon caught up during a very fine summer.
Flowering took place very evenly around 18 June. Mid-veraison was recorded on 21 August.
Ideal weather conditions meant that by harvest time the grapes were very ripe, forming small bunches with highly concentrated flavours.

Harvest: 2 to 15 October
Varietal mix:
Cabernet Sauvignon 80 %
Merlot 10 %
Cabernet Franc 8 %
Petit Verdot 2 %

Tasting notes:
A dark, intense colour with a ruby tint, this fine vintage reveals a nose of nuts and prunes made more complex by notes of toffee, rancio, peppery spice and cedarwood. The attack is dense, the tannins forward and tightly-knit, the wine powerful, rich and smooth, displaying an array of jammy fruit, wild berry and blackcurrant liqueur flavours, leading into a finish on notes of toast.

 

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Average Bottle Price

2015 2014 2013 2011 2010 2005
746€ +20.1% 621€ -23.2% 809€ -5.4% 855€ +8.2% 790€ +146.1% 321€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Medium and Dark

ending

Long

flavors

Blackcurrant, Mint, Plum, Coffee, Mushrooms and Leather

nose

Open, Complex and Refined

recommend

Yes

taste

Perfectly balanced, Well-structured, Full-bodied, Firm, Elegant and Full

Written Notes

1986 was staggeringly so. 'WOW,' was the first thing that came to mind. Its amazing concentration was the second. Huge, thick and lip-smacking, this '86 elevated this flight to another level. Since this wine was served blind, there were a lot of '82 guesses occurring, and Jefery liked its 'vanilla.' As good as the previous four wines were, this bottle of 1986 Mouton made me want to downgrade all of them! This is another Mouton that will be amongst the 20th Century's Top Ten, and maybe even Top Five Moutons

  • 99p
The bottle was in a superb condition. Bright, lovely deep and dark colour. Surprisingly open, oaky, spicy and flavourful nose. Prosperous, well-balanced, intense and multifaceted wine. As good and big as expected. A real joy now, but the good intensity of fruit and heavy structure makes me think this will be much more breathtaking in future. Real smash hit!
  • 96p

Ruby. Coffee, anise, blueberries, some spices, some leather, detailed but on the rich and ripe side. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, dark fruity, anise, some spices, bit woody finish. Two hours in decanter. Not enough! 96

  • 96p

Although decanted four hours before service, the wine needed a long time to open up, eventually displaying a complex aroma reminiscent of elderberries and blackcurrants, slight earthy notes, Indian sandalwood, fine Cuban tobacco, cigar box, graphite and pencil shavings. On the palate the massive structure did not prevent elegance and persistence to go hand in hand. Very aromatic, repeating the flavours of the nose, ripe, silky but still somehow youthful tannins, fine acidity and deeply impressing length. An almost perfect drinking experience. 100/100

  • 100p
1986 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Bordeaux, France D1,5h, G2 (Gothenburg, Sweden, Okt 2012) Starts of as quite a backward and dark nose with mushroomy notes. Takes on a completely different character after 30 min in the glass with delicous, pure, liqueur like cassis fruit, pencil shavings, mint and tobacco. Full bodied and very tannic palate with lush, sweet, dark plummy fruit with sweet black currant notes, coffee, leather, mint and pipe tobacco. It’s a interesting wrestling match on the palate between the massive tannins and big fruit. Luckily this wine is in perfect balance and the fruit sings on the very long finish. Far from mature! Drink 2018-2036 98p.
  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Pauillac, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

None

Glass time

2h

Inside Information

Vinous (Stephen Tanzer) 95 points 

(8% cabernet sauvignon, 1% merlot, 8% cabernet franc and 2% petit verdot; pH 3.54; IPT 66; 12.5% alcohol; 9% new oak; an 8% selection): Very deep, saturated ruby with only a hint of garnet at the rim. Ripe red and black fruits, mint, vanilla, minerals and delicate black pepper on the captivating nose. Very rich, big and deep, with a luscious texture and ripe flavors similar to the aromas. Finishes smoothly tannic and very long, with building sweetness. This gorgeous Mouton, though massively built, also reflects the long hang time of the berries, which led to a perfect polymerization of its tannins and a fleshy structure. Still very much an infant: I wouldn't touch a bottle for at least another ten years. I also like the fact that, although it's very sweet and creamy, strong acidity (note the lower-than-usual pH) is keeping it vibrant. This vintage is the first in which Mouton vinified its young vines separately and only used those vats judged to be of grand cru quality. Following a slowdown in physiological ripening during August, the late harvest (October 2-16) permitted a longer growing curve. Tourbier noted that "petit verdot needs its head in the sun and its feet in the water, and as it had been initially planted on one of the highest, coolest sites at Mouton, a mistake on our part, it rarely ripened enough to be included in the grand vin, and this explains why we hardly used it in the older vintages."- Ian D'Agata (8/211)

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