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Château Mouton-Rothschild 2016

Château Mouton-Rothschild, Bordeaux, France

Château Mouton-Rothschild
Bordeaux France
  • 100
    Points
  • The 55 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 29 Pros of
    30 recommend
    this wine
1279 100
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    45

  • Producer ranking ?

    7

  • Decanting time

    3h

  • When to drink

    from 2022

  • Food Pairing

    Slow Cooked Short Ribs

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WILLIAM KENTRIDGE ILLUSTRATES THE LABEL OF CHÂTEAU MOUTON ROTHSCHILD 2016

 Every year since 1945, a great artist has illustrated the label of Château Mouton Rothschild. Thus, the most famous names in contemporary art are brought together in a collection to which a new work is added each year. 

The owners of Mouton, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, gave the commission fo...

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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. 


...

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Wine Information

Climatic conditions

In 2016, there were two main trends in the weather as we experienced it in Pauillac:

– a very wet winter and spring: more than half of the annual rainfall came in the first four months of the year, including a record 240 mm in January ;
– an extremely dry summer and autumn without any significant rainfall, resulting in a water deficit at the end of the year.

As a consequence of the summer drought, the grapes were ...

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Vintage 2016

2016 Bordeaux in Review  “A Paradox”

by Andrew Caillard MW

The 2016 Bordeaux vintage will be remembered as one of the great years of the 21st Century. I have not been so excited about the prospects of such young wines since the remarkable back-to-back 2009 and 2010 vintages. At that time China was at the zenith of its extraordinary fine wine ascendency where the very top estates, particularly Chateau Lafite, had become a baksheesh curren...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

23 tasting notes

Tasting note

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Written Notes

Extra full-bodied, tannic, blackcurrant notes, dark cherry notes, plum notes, chocolaty, black pepper notes, light mocha notes, hint of pencil lead, oak notes, rich, full-bodied, warm, long

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  • 98p

A generous, pure and lush ball of Cabernet, with wave after wave of unadulterated cassis and blackberry puree flavors rolling through. Features notes of roasted apple wood and sweet tobacco, offset by a long tug of sweet earth, but that’s all background music to the impressive core of fruit, which steams along like a cruise ship with enough stores in reserve to go around the world twice without stopping. Best from 2025 through 2045.

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  • 98p

Gorgeous, subtle, layered Mouton with delicate and detailed flavors that linger on the palate for a long time. The density of the tannins combine with wonderful freshness and layers of flavors that range from dark berries, savory spices to cedar and earth. A glorious Mouton that has stature and concentration without any heaviness. The blend is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 1% Cab Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. The latter two varieties were co-fermented.

99 points

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  • 99p

The nose can only be described as black currant liqueur. From there you find 5 spice, blackberry and wild cherry. The barrel aging has really concentrated this wine. Unctuous, intense, concentrated and flat out, delicious. It is not often Pauillac is described as decadent. But that is exactly what takes place here. The wine covers every taste receptor on your palate. If you have the chance to taste this elixir, don't pass on it. If you have the disposable income to lay this incredible wine down, do it,. As this is going to be impossibly expensive as it matures. 100 Pts

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  • 100p

Along with the Château Lafite, the 2016 Château Mouton Rothschild is the wine of the vintage from the Médoc and is a truly profound, magical, blockbuster wine in every sense. It’s based on 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, raised in new French oak. Boasting a saturated purple color as well as an extraordinary bouquet of thick black fruits, lead pencil shavings, new saddle leather, and burning embers, with just a hint of its oak upbringing, this beauty hits the palate with a mammoth amount of fruit and texture yet stays fresh, pure, and light on its feet, with a thrilling sense of minerality as well as building tannins on the finish. It’s one of the most profound young wines I’ve ever tasted, and while it will probably keep for three-quarters of a decade, it offers pleasure even today. Bravo!

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  • 100p

83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot picked from 26 September (Merlot) until 14 October (Cabernet Sauvignon).
Exceptional crimson. Real lift and transparency. Quite a soaring dry style with great texture and refreshment. Very strong style statement. Infusion of Cabernet. A sort of amalgam of cassis and tar in that very Mouton way but with 21st-century lift and transparency. Quite brave in a way. Bone dry and utterly embryonic compared with most of the 2016s (with the notable exception of Las Cases).

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  • 95p

The 2016 Mouton-Rothschild is a blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the latter two co-fermented, picked from 26 September and finished on 14 October. As usual, it is being matured in 100% new oak. It has a very intense bouquet with blackberry, raspberry, cold limestone and crushed violet aromas that if anything, appear to gain vigor with aeration in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, juicy tannin. There is a lot of fruit packed into this Mouton-Rothschild and therefore one can feel the weight in the mouth, yet the acidity keeps everything on tip-toes. The finish has superb precision and opulence, completing a Mouton-Rothschild that will rivet you to the spot. Tasted on two occasions, the second confirming that this is simply a magnificent wine. Whichever artist eventually designs the label is going to be drinking well. 98-100p

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  • 99p

Deep colour. Intense beautiful cassis fig aromas with elements of strawberry and integrated mocha bisquity oak. Superb dark plum, cassis, fig fruit, espresso bisquity, creme brûlée oak, fine looseknit grainy persistent tannins, inky notes and long fresh acidity. Finishes cedar oaky and tannin firm with long pure fruit notes. Generous yet elegantly proportioned. Very good flavour length. A classic vintage with the complexity, substance and balance for the long haul. Tasted at Ch Mouton Rothschild. 100   points

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  • 100p

The vintage 2016 is love at second sight for Mouton-Rothschild, which presents a rather intellectual but fascinating style. Dark purple red with violet hue and black core. Impressing wine with complexity and potential. Ripe dark berries, typical nuances of graphite, in the background cocoa and dark chocolate, toasting aroma. On the palate well structured with ripe and velvety tannins, fine acidity, elegant length. Elegant freshness, juicy fruit in the background. A great Mouton, one of the best ever tasted en primeur. 99

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  • 99p

Ruby. Cassis, anise, some vanilla, spices, exotic notes, detailed, layered and deeper, blueberries and blackberries nose. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, fresh, fruity, detailed, juicy, elegant, refined, exotic, bright and pure fruit, stunning length, never ending finish, never ending finish. 98-100

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Information

Origin

Pauillac, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

Inside Information

A stone's throw away (if you're Aaron Rodgers) is the first-growth Mouton-Rothschild, where general director Philippe Dhalluin has been making remarkably pure and powerful wines since he took over from Patrick Léon in 2004. For more on this estate, reference my 2015 en primeur notes here.

"In all the wines the tannins are very high, higher than '10," says Dhalluin as we taste through the lineup. "But it's the impression of freshness that is so special in this vintage."

"Flowering was a miracle, as it came between two storms, during a perfect week of weather in June. But up until that and even after, I was thinking 2016 might be worse than 2013," says Dhalluin. "What was interesting was that the flowering set a lot of berries per bunch, which might have been a problem if the ripening struggled—if [the grapes] grew too large, especially from water, [the crop] could have been very diluted. But then the second half was perfect—very dry, of course, so the berries stayed small. … Merlot doesn't usually like drought, but with the smaller berries that was offset. And Cabernet loves drought, so the combination worked perfectly."

In the 2016 d'Armailhac, the cassis core is very bright and engaging, with a sleek, chalky spine pinning down the finish. It has ample tannins, but also the energy and freshness that Dhalluin noted. I was particularly enthused with the 2016 Clerc Milon, which is rippling with bright acidity and racy tannins while the core of currant and anise notes is almost ebullient in feel. There's a lovely iron note through the finish, with a floral lift too. Dhalluin let me in on a little secret: Of the 1 percent of Carmenère in the blend, half of it was whole-bunch fermented in demi-muids. That's just a small piece of the puzzle, but perhaps another reason why the wine has such an energetic feel.

The 2016 grand vin from Mouton is a prodigious wine in the making, built on a long, iron spine that runs from start to finish, though it's well-embedded in beautifully pure cassis and raspberry reduction notes. Very dense yet mouthwatering, it has a gorgeous floral echo through the finish. This vintage also marks the return of Petit Verdot (1 percent) to the blend, as the parcel of this lightly used blending grape was pulled when Dhalluin arrived; he planted a new parcel in 2011 on a spot he thought ideal for it. The grape lends extra spice and cassis bush aromatics to the wine, along with vibrant structure. A late but fast-ripening variety, it excelled in the 2016 season in general, and more producers have included it in their blends, which should help define the vintage's distinct signature as the wines develop.

by James Molesworth

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