98pts James Suckling

This shows blackcurrants, blackberries, violets, lavender, pencil shavings and hints of metal shavings. Medium- to full-bodied with a firm and juicy character of extremely polished and integrated tannins that caress your palate. Compact and poised with tension and focus. A blend of 89% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot and 1% cabernet franc. 13.1% alcohol. Drink after 2029.

97pts Wine Enthusiast

Big, rich and sumptuously smoky, this has density and power. Its blackberry tones are structured, with a core of tannins. This very fine wine has all the classic attributes of a Mouton, just slightly lighter.
Barrel Sample: 95-97

96pys Decanter

Gorgeous deep pink purple rim to the glass. The nose is bright and intense, heady with perfumed aromatics and edges of graphite, cocoa and sweet red cherries. Such clarity on the palate, excellent tension from the get go with beautifully expressed cherry and strawberry fruit that has a soft, ripe fleshy core. The tannins are fine but plentiful, coating the mouth providing the structure and frame. This has such a sense of quiet confidence - it's not shouting so much but gently showing off its many layers of fruit, acidity, minerality and freshness. This really grows on you, expanding and deepening as the flavours travel across the palate, coming in waves. Understated and introverted at the moment but still harmonious and classy. I love it. Just 41% of grand vin.
Barrel Sample: 96

95pts Jeb Dunnuck

As to the Grand Vin 2021 Château Mouton Rothschild, this beauty is in the running for one of the wines of the vintage, and it brings more depth, richness, and texture than just about anything else in the Médoc. A blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and 1% Cabernet Franc that was brought up in new barrels, it sports a dense purple/plum hue as well as powerful aromatics of spicy black fruits, leafy tobacco, graphite, and freshly sharpened pencils. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a building, layered mouthfeel and impressive concentration and intensity in its aromas and flavors, velvety tannins, and gorgeous finish. You'd be hard pressed to know this came from a challenging vintage. It's going to take at least 5-7 years to hit the early stages of its prime drinking window and will evolve gracefully over the following 20-25 years. Bravo.

94pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Mouton Rothschild unwinds in the glass with rich aromas of dark berries and minty cassis mingled with espresso roast, dark chocolate, smoked meats and toasty new oak. It has taken on weight with élevage in barrel, exhibiting a full-bodied, rich and layered palate that's impressively muscular and multidimensional, with a deep core of fruit and plenty of sweet, powdery structuring tannin, concluding with a long, discreetly carnal finish.

Winemaker Notes

The wine is dark red with a purple hue. The intense and elegant nose displays seductive blackberry and blackcurrant aromas combined with floral touches of iris set off by touches of spice and cedarwood. A luscious, succulent attack leads into a beautifully balanced, fresh and harmonious palate on which bigarreau cherry flavors are enfolded in a structure of sapid, patrician tannins. Sustained by an attractive minerality, the long, lingering finish reveals spicy fresh fruit notes.

Blend: 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc

About the Label Artwork

The Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has created the original artwork Universe of Mouton for the label for the 2021 Château Mouton Rothschild.

In her drawing, the fragile silhouette of a human figure faces gorgeous, generous nature. It is not the center of attention but seems small compared to the environment. It is as though the figure is holding onto the balance between nature and humans. Its grip cannot be too tight, or the thread will break, nor too loose or else the cloud will blow away and the connection will be broken.

Chiharu Shiota was born in Osaka in 1972 and is currently based in Berlin.

Shiota's inspiration often emerges from a personal experience or emotion which she expands into universal human concerns such as life, death and relationships.

"When I visited Château Mouton Rothschild, I was very inspired by their relationship with nature. They depend on the weather and do not interfere with mother nature. They accept the conditions in which the grapes grow. I think Mouton is holding on to the balance of human and nature."

Winery Notes

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.