2011 Château Mouton Rothschild

The 2011 Mouton-Rothschild feels surprisingly reduced on the nose and needed a lot of coaxing. Leather, mocha, liquorice develops in the glass, quite bretty compared to its peers. The palate is medium-bodied, fleshy and ripe, that mocha translating over from the nose, minty with touches of white pepper on the finish. A very decent Pauillac, a solid rather than spectacular effort from Mouton this year. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting.

Tasted blind. Easy, fragrant nose. Soft and inky. Fairly lightweight. Flattering but on the sweet side. (JR)

Tasted at the Mouton-Rothschild vertical in London, the 2011 Mouton-Rothschild is probably the "weakest" of the releases between 2008 and 2012, although that would be unfairly disparaging what is a perfectly respectable, if rather unexciting Mouton. Here, it has those graphite and cedar aromas present and correct, the former a little more accentuated and with a light sea-spray note emerging with time. The palate is well balanced with cedar and a slight peat-like note infusing the black fruit, rigid in its youth but nicely delineated. As I discerned out of barrel, what it lacks is that peacock's tail on the finish, bolting out of the exit door before you have really got to know each other. Tasted April 2016.