Extremely perfumed Mouton with currants and crushed berries. Hints of roses and other flowers. Tight and extremely refined with ultra-fine tannins and cool yet rich currant character. The center palate offers sweet cherries and hints of oak. Lightly sweet and sour. Fresh, balsamic note. It firms up at the end. Solid. A blend of 90% cabernet sauvignon, 9% merlot and 1% petit verdot.

Nearly purple in color, this is full bodied and intense. There is a strong sensation of crushed stone, exotic spices, licorice and barbecue smoke swirling about the dusky red fruits as they coat your palate. Powerful and sensuous with a magnificent wholesomeness of fruit, the wine nimbly builds to a boundless finish, which clocks in at close to 60 seconds! The blend comes from 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, reaching 13.1% alcohol with a pH of 3.75. The harvest took place from September 7 to September 29 and the Grand Vin represents 51% of the harvest. Tasted April 2018

The 2017 Mouton Rothschild is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it slowly unfurls to reveal notes of warm black plums, baked black cherries, kirsch and freshly crushed blackcurrants with hints of candied violets, cinnamon toast, Ceylon tea and pencil shavings. Medium-bodied, the palate is charged with amazing energy, featuring dynamic black and red fruits and loads of baking spice and mineral sparks, framed by ripe, fine-grained tannins and finishing long and fragrant. Given the intensity of fruit and structure, while this is a relatively elegant Mouton that will be approachable early on, I don’t see it as being short lived. It should give pleasure for a good 40+ years. LPB

The 2017 Mouton-Rothschild is lucid in colour, quite deep like the Le Petit Mouton. It has a pixelated bouquet with precise blackberry, raspberry and crushed stone aromas, the oak seamlessly integrated so that the aromatics have unerring focus. The palate is medium-bodied with a graphite-tinged entry that is actually reminiscent of Latour in many ways. This Mouton-Rothschild is all about finesse and poise, the acidity beautifully judged and with superb tension on the finish. One of the finest Left Bank wines of the vintage, there are few 2017s superior to this.

Graphite, black chocolate, pencil lead, blackberry and liquorice. This is serious, not holding back on its confident sense of power and depth. 100% new oak coming through as toasted grilled almond aromatics, this has no issue with settling in for the long term and will deliver over the next two to three decades. Easy to love. Drinking Window: 2027 - 2050
Tasted by: Jane Anson (at Mouton, 21 Nov 2019)
Part of Château Mouton Rothschild en primeur history: 2016 - 2020

The top 2017 Chateau Mouton Rothschild checks in as 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot that spent 18 months in new barrels. This rock star of a wine offers stunning notes of chocolately blackcurrants, toasted spice, and espresso roast, as well as loads of classic Pauillac lead pencil shavings and graphite nuances. It's another wine that starts out slowly yet builds incrementally on the palate with full-bodied richness, ripe, polished tannin, no hard edges, and a stunning sense of purity and elegance. Give bottles upwards of a decade and it will evolve for 30 years or more.

The only chateau ever to be upgraded to First Growth status (in 1973), Mouton Rothschild is iconic both inside and outside the bottle. Rich with intense dark fruit and soy, with a musky, spicy edge that gives real interest. So, so soft in the structure with ultrafine tannins which carry the sweetness of the fruit. A dense core with real matter and freshness shows the class of the cabernet here. Glossy and impressive. - April 2018

The 2017 Mouton Rothschild is a powerful wine for the year, probably because of the high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. Dense and closed in on itself, the 2017 is likely going to require quite a bit of time to soften. Raspberry jam, pomegranate and blood orange add lift and perfume with time in the glass. There is quite a bit of energy and brightness in the 2017, but not as much immediacy as is common for the vintage. That may ultimately turn out to be a positive for the wine's long term prospects. The blend is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot. "After the frost, which did not really affect us, the major challenge in 2017 was heat stress," Mouton Technical Director Philippe Dhalluin told me. "We had no rain until the end of June. Then, in September, when we needed a bit of rain again, we got more than double what would have been optimal. The September rain affected the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, while the Cabernet Sauvignon was able to take advantage of the last 15 days of the growing season, which were much more favorable. In the cellar, we opted for longer macerations at lower temperatures, as we wanted to avoid extracting the type of hard tannins that mark other vintages with very dry summers, such as 2011." - vinous.com, May 2018

Healthy, glowing deep crimson with soft cherry rim. Rocky/smoky cassis lift to the aroma. Fragrant with sober and non-exotic fruit. Serious. Super-fine texture, appears gentle but is very persistent, so fresh and effortless and yet intense and long. Refined and accessible but long term too. - Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com, April 2018