2012 Mouton Rothschild
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Tasting notes
90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc. This is more reticent on the nose than usual but it opens up to reveal some deep ripe fruit and lifted violet notes. The palate is rounded with very fine tannins and a delicately creamy texture. This has poise rather than flamboyance. Very good. FINE+RARE
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
FINE+RARE
More reviews and scores
The 2012 Mouton-Rothschild is an excellent wine for the vintage. Copious blackberry and blueberry fruits burst from the glass with incense and crushed violet scents, beautifully defined and perhaps even "audacious" for the growing season. The palate is "glossy" when compared directly to the other First Growth, yet there is brilliant delineation with a sense of tension on the finish. It's a vivid and almost brash Mouton-Rothschild, but quite compelling. Tasted blind in Bordeaux.
The 2012 Mouton Rothschild has a complex bouquet with predominantly red fruit, singed leather, cedar and warm gravel. You might have expected these aromatics to derive from a warmer growing season. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins, fine acidity, quite fleshy and sweet with a lovely build towards the finish. Very long on the aftertaste, this is at the liminal point between primary and secondary fruit - lovely. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.
Very heavy bottle! Intense, glamorous nose with real density and pizzazz. Sweet end. Neat and convincing first-growth quality. (JR)
About the producer
Pauillac-based Ch. Mouton Rothschild is one of the five First Growths, producing some of the finest wine in Bordeaux and the world. Known for its flamboyant style, the label for the Grand Vin is designed by a different artist each year.