Chateau Mouton Rothschild (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2020
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine is a deep, dark, garnet-hued cherry red. The refined and complex nose opens on remarkably ripe black fruit aromas, going on with airing to reveal blackcurrant and aniseed notes combined with touches of graphite and a subtle hint of blond tobacco. From a smooth yet full-bodied attack, the palate displays highly precise tannins which sustain an expansion of flavors in harmonious, succulent balance. Nuanced refinements evident in touches of mint and mineral, smoky notes.
Blend: 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
About the Label: A British painter of Scottish origin who divides his time between London and Trinidad, Peter Doig is the artist chosen by Château Mouton Rothschild to create the original artwork to illustrate the label for its 2020 vintage. In his work for the label, the painter combines echoes of Cézanne and van Gogh with a fascinating personal reverie on the nocturnal birth of a great wine, seemingly brought to life by the strange magic of a song played on the guitar.
The painting is a dreamscape. The artist has sought to create a picture that celebrates the growing and harvesting of grapes, showing workers in the vineyard. Peter Doig wished to establish a connection with artists like Millet, van Gogh and Bacon who had depicted vineyard or farm workers. The work also had a personal inspiration in his Trinidadian friend, an artist known as Embah (Emheyo Bhabba) who brought a cuatro - a four string guitar - to one of Doig’s exhibitions in Paris and shared his music and poetry during the course of the evening.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
The purity of blackcurrants, blueberries, creme de cassis, and flowers. Hints of subtle spearmint. Iron. Blood orange. Medium-bodied with a compacted palate, like a cylinder of perfectly ripe fruit and fine tannins. A million layers of tight-grained tannins. It goes on and on. Such freshness and weightlessness to it. Ethereal. New classicism. Modern take on the 1986.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Mouton Rothschild is a striking wine and one that I regretted not purchasing en primeur as soon as it landed in my glass. Offering up complex aromas of minty cassis, pencil shavings, loamy soil, cigar wrapper, espresso roast and violets, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and layered, with terrific concentrated, beautifully refined tannins and a long, penetrating finish. Checking in at 12.8% alcohol, its incipient complexity, ineffable sense of completeness and exquisite balance mark it out as the purists' choice among the trio of 2018, 2019 and 2020. In this vintage, the lots that made it into the blend were largely confined to the core gravel terroirs that represent Mouton's heart, meaning that there's a little less to go around. This was the first vintage overseen by Mouton's new technical director, Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, and he has begun with a flying start.
-
Decanter
Dark fruits on the nose, blackcurrants and cherries with savoury nuances of dark chocolate and tobacco. Fresh and forward on the palate, this hits you square on, still very lean and direct, almost piercing and severe in its intensity and drive, though wonderfully precise: it’s like an arrow. Serious and focussed yet full and layered, the texture is lovely, a slight graininess that lingers but it’s the acidity and the fruit purity that are so excellent - they give such a sense of vibrancy and make this wine so thrilling. You get a feeling of pent-up energy, but after a few minutes the slight density of the ripe fruit comes through, giving some plushness and weight. I love the Cabernet details and the mineral element that leaves the mouth cool and fresh. A well constructed, subtle beauty.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Chateau Mouton Rothschild is in the running for the biggest, baddest, and most concentrated wine in the vintage. Based on 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petite Verdot brought up in new barrels, this inky hued beast of wine offers up classic Mouton ripe black fruits, scorched earth, tobacco leaf, and freshly sharpened pencil-like aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied, concentrated, tannic, backward 2020 with terrific purity, building, mouth-coating tannins, terrific balance, and one gorgeous finish. Unfortunately, as with many of the top 2020s, this isn't for those looking for instant gratification, and a decade (or more) of cellaring is advised. This hit 13.1% natural alcohol with a pH of 3.78. It will be a 50-, 60-, 70+-year wine.
-
Wine Enthusiast
The natural opulence of this wine is restrained this year by the fine combination of structure and the freshest black currant. It has an upright character following a line of great fruits and delicious acidity. The wine will certainly age although this could be a vintage that shows well in its early years.
Barrel Sample: 95-97
Other Vintages
2022-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Wong
Wilfred -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
- Decanter
-
Wong
Wilfred -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Wong
Wilfred -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Spirits
Wine & -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Spirits
Wine & -
Parker
Robert
- Decanter
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
A First Classified Growth, Château Mouton Rothschild spans 82 hectares (202 acres) of vines at Pauillac in the Médoc, planted with the classic varieties of the region: Cabernet Sauvignon (79%), Merlot (17%), Cabernet Franc (3 %), Petit Verdot (1 %). The average age of the vines is 50 years.
The estate benefits from exceptionally favourable natural conditions, in the quality of the soil, the position of its vines and their exposure to the sun. Combining respect for tradition with the latest technology, it receives meticulous attention from grape to bottle. The wine is matured in new French oak barrels.
Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild is the second wine of Château Mouton Rothschild.
The estate also comprises 6 hectares (15 acres) of sandy, gravelly soil planted with Sauvignon Blanc (51%), Semillon (40%) and Sauvignon Gris (9%), used to make its white wine, Aile d’Argent.
Brought to the pinnacle by two exceptional people, Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) then his daughter Baroness Philippine (1933-2014), its destiny has now been taken in hand by her three children: Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild. True to their grandfather’s and mother’s work, all three are committed, with the same enthusiasm and determination, to perpetuating Baron Philippe’s dictum: “Live for the vine”. Almost a command, it means being there for the vineyard in good times and in hardship, serving it with skill and honouring it with art.
Château Mouton Rothschild is a place of art and beauty, famous for the spectacular vista of its great barrel hall, its remarkable vat room and its Museum of Wine in Art. Every year since 1945, the Château Mouton Rothschild label has been illustrated with an original artwork by a great contemporary artist. Dalí, César, Miró, Chagall, Warhol, Soulages, Bacon, Balthus, Tàpies, Koons and Doig are only some of the artists featured in a fascinating collection to which a new work is added each year and which makes up the Paintings for the Labels exhibition.