The 2016 Mouton-Rothschild has an understated bouquet at first, featuring scents of blackberry, bilberry and traces of kelp and brine. Wonderful delineation here, and it builds in intensity with a few swirls of the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, a fine bead of acidity, a velvety-smooth texture and an elegant, utterly beguiling finish that flirts with perfection. Astonishing. Kudos to Philippe Dhalluin, who will be retiring from his position at the end of the year. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.

The only chateau ever to be upgraded to First Growth status (in 1973), Mouton Rothschild is iconic both inside and outside the bottle. Powerful, brooding, regal nose of ripe blackcurrant, warm earth, clean minerality and just a touch of spice. Big, bold, unashamed and opulentwith such a purity of expression and great vibrancy. So much vineyard to taste here! Great class and focus, huge finish. A show stopper. - April 2017

A generous, pure and lush ball of Cabernet, with wave after wave of unadulterated cassis and blackberry puree flavors rolling through. Features notes of roasted apple wood and sweet tobacco, offset by a long tug of sweet earth, but that's all background music to the impressive core of fruit, which steams along like a cruise ship with enough stores in reserve to go around the world twice without stopping. JM

Exceptional crimson. Real lift and transparency. Quite a soaring dry style with great texture and refreshment. Very strong style statement. Infusion of Cabernet. A sort of amalgam of cassis and tar in that very Mouton way but with 21st-century lift and transparency. Quite brave in a way. Bone dry and utterly embryonic compared with most of the 2016s (with the notable exception of Las Cases). Drink 2030-2055. - jancisrobinson.com, April 2017

A towering, thrilling wine, the 2016 Mouton Rothschild is unbelievably beautiful today. Aromatics, fruit density and vertical structure all come together. In the glass, the 2016 is remarkably vivid and powerful, and yet a gentler, more feminine side emerges with time in the glass. The intense, mineral, savory profile recalls the 1986, but the 2016 has more grace, inner sweetness and sophistication than that wine. Even so, the 2016 is going to need at least a number of years in bottle before it starts drinking well, although it won't be the bruiser the 1986 remains to this day. This is breathtaking wine from Mouton, Tecnical Director Philippe Dhalluin and his team.

The nose can only be described as black currant liqueur. From there you find 5 spice, blackberry and wild cherry. The barrel aging has really concentrated this wine. Unctuous, intense, concentrated and flat out, delicious. It is not often Pauillac is described as decadent. But that is exactly what takes place here. The wine covers every taste receptor on your palate. If you have the chance to taste this elixir, don't pass on it. If you have the disposable income to lay this incredible wine down, do it,. As this is going to be impossibly expensive as it matures. Tasted Sept 2019

I believe the 2016 Château Mouton Rothschild will be one of the legendary wines of the 21st century, and it might be the finest wine I've ever tasted. Still deep purple-hued and incredibly young, it offers an incredible sense of purity and precision in its darker currant, blueberry, and cassis-like fruits as well as classic graphite, lead pencil, violet, and tobacco aromatics. With flawless balance and perfect integration of its fruit, acidity, oak, and tannins, this concentrated, full-bodied, utterly magical Pauillac is going to need 15 years to hit its prime drink window, and I suspect will see its 75th birthday in fine form. The blend is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 1% each Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. 100pts May 2023
Along with the Château Lafite, the 2016 Château Mouton Rothschild is the wine of the vintage from the Médoc and is a truly profound, magical, blockbuster wine in every sense. It’s based on 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, raised in new French oak. Boasting a saturated purple color as well as an extraordinary bouquet of thick black fruits, lead pencil shavings, new saddle leather, and burning embers, with just a hint of its oak upbringing, this beauty hits the palate with a mammoth amount of fruit and texture yet stays fresh, pure, and light on its feet, with a thrilling sense of minerality as well as building tannins on the finish. It’s one of the most profound young wines I’ve ever tasted, and while it will probably keep for three-quarters of a decade, it offers pleasure even today. Bravo! - jebdunnuck.com, February 2019

Dark ruby, purple color. Aromas of blackcurrants, black truffle, crushed stone, licorice and hints of tar. Full-bodied, deep and vertical on the palate, drawing you in and down. The structure is very tannic and powerful, yet the tannins are folded into the wine. One of the most powerful Moutons ever for me. Try after 2027. March 2020

Composed of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2016 Mouton Rothschild has an opaque garnet-purple color. WOW—the nose explodes from the glass with powerful blackcurrant cordial, black raspberries, blueberry pie and melted chocolate notions, plus suggestions of aniseed, camphor, lifted kirsch and the faintest waft of a subtle floral perfume in the background. Full-bodied, concentrated, bold and totally seductive in the mouth, it has very fine-grained, silt-like tannins, while jam-packed with tightly wound fruit layers, finishing in this wonderful array of mineral sparks. Magic. LPB Oct 2019