Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This powerful, impressive wine is comprised of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon. It's seriously structured, with loads of black currants and dark tannin, and revels on the finish with the juicy, fresh acidity of this vintage. A fine Mouton, this is the first vintage produced in the chateau's new cellar.
Barrel Sample: 96-98 Points -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The intensely ripe Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the plateau at Mouton has produced an inky/purple-colored wine with the famous Mouton creme de cassis and floral characteristics vividly displayed. For the first time in a number of years they appear to have outdistanced their cross street rival, the biodynamically farmed Chateau Pontet Canet of Alfred Tesseron. Wonderfully sweet tannins envelop the enormous fruit and extravagant richness of this full-bodied Mouton Rothschild. With profound density as well as surprisingly sweet tannin, this terrific effort will probably shut down slightly and require 5-8 years of cellaring after bottling. It appears to have 30 or more years of aging potential, making it potentially one of the 3 or 4 longest-lived wines of the vintage.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 Points -
James Suckling
Wonderful beauty to this wine with currants, blackberries and flowers. Full body, with ultra-fine tannins and a long, long finish. Creamy texture with a minerally, almost salty undertone to the wine. 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc.
Barrel Sample: 94-95 -
Wine Spectator
This has a stunningly pure core of plum, black currant and black cherry fruit, with supple yet long structure that has melded wonderfully already. Anise, violet and cassis notes pour in on the finish. The fruit makes it seem almost too easy, but this will cellar well thanks to outstanding balance. A huge but very stylish wine. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Château Mouton Rothschild is an excellent wine in a year in which only the best players performed well. Expansive and fully-textured on the palate, the wine offers a full display of intense Pauillac flavors—black currants, boysenberries, earth, and mineral. Its substantive length on the palate ensures longtime ageabilty. This First Growth appears to be the top wine of the vintage. (Tasted: April 8, 2013, Pauillac, France) Barrel Sample: 93-95
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.