Château Mouton Rothschild, 2025
Château Mouton Rothschild, 2025
- 75cl
- 13.1%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028
The maverick first growth that fought its way into the 1855 Classification a century late, Philippe de Rothschild's estate has been turning heads since the 1920s with artist-designed labels and uncompromising winemaking.
Mouton's vineyards sit on a plateau of deep Günzian gravel over limestone and clay, giving perfect drainage while retaining enough moisture for the vines. The gravel stores heat during the day and releases it at night, helping ripen Cabernet Sauvignon to perfection. This terroir creates Mouton's signature combination of power and elegance, with that distinctive graphite minerality that separates it from neighbouring châteaux. The proximity to the Gironde estuary moderates temperatures and extends the growing season.
Pauillac is Bordeaux's most aristocratic commune, home to three of the five first growths. The appellation's deep gravel soils and maritime climate create ideal conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon, which must comprise at least 70% of any blend here. Pauillac wines are known for their power, longevity, and that distinctive cassis character that comes from perfectly ripened Cabernet. The appellation sits between Saint-Estèphe to the north and Saint-Julien to the south, combining the former's structure with the latter's elegance.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
What the critics say:
"Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Fine precious wood spice, nuances of cassis and liquorice, delicate hints of nougat and orange zest, seductive bouquet. Complex, tightly meshed, fresh dark berry fruit, fine, silky, tannins, delicate blueberries, lively structure, mineral-salty finish, elegant and precise, shows length and assured ageing potential. (98% Cabernet Sauvignon)"
"A glamorous wine for the vintage, with mesmerizing perfumes of flowers, al dente fruit and citrus flowers. Black currants with some mineral and stone undertones. Medium- to full-bodied with ultra-fine tannins and an endless finish. The tannins lead you on a great trip. It is the most cabernet sauvignon ever used in the blend in recent memory. Balanced and structured. 98% cabernet sauvignon and 2% merlot."
"Highest Cabernet Sauvignon on record (since 94% for the 2010 vintage), stately and reserved at first, then totally joyful. The right austerity, coupled with squid ink character and fabulous hidden depths that are going to take their time to fully unroll, with the incense of the oak coming through only after a good 10 minutes in the glass, you barely perceive it on the first tasting. What a beautiful Mouton, great stuff from wine director Jean-Philippe Danjoy. 52% Grand Vin, basically pure old vine Cabernet. And an interesting side note - in September there was no weekend picking, a clear indication that there was no stress about the harvest dates. 3.76pH. Harvest September 5 to 20. 100% new oak."
"(Pauillac; 98.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1.8% Merlot; a final yield of 30 hl/ha, the highest of the first growths; pH 3.76; 13.1% ABV; tasted at Mouton Rothschild with Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy). The 98.2% Cabernet Sauvignon is, of course, an historic record here and the 0.2% less Merlot had a significant bearing on the identity of the final wine, Jean-Emmanuel tells me. We have, perhaps unremarkably, Cabernet cedar and Cabernet graphite in abundance! This is truly fabulous and utterly divine. It's also strikingly intimate, though not really more closed aromatically, but certainly far less 'solaire' than Le Petit Mouton. It's more serious, more cool at the core (indeed, that sense of coolness seems to radiate outwards from the core), more classical and more mirrorpool in its clarity, with that slightly sombre and almost haunting character of the vintage. The entry ('attack' would be too strong a word) is incredibly beautiful and so gentle. Mouton builds ever so slowly in the mouth due to the softness of the extraction. This is wine of incredible clarity. It imparts the sensation of layered purity: fine sheets of silk interspersed with layers of cashmere, the tannins delineating each horizontally and pixelating each vertically. A supreme wine, opulent but never demonstrative, incredibly profound and complete."
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Château Mouton Rothschild
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