2004 Château Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Tasted at the château in bottle and a week later, en magnum at the Académie du Vin dinner.
The 2004 Mouton Rothschild takes a few swirls of the glass to coalesce, slightly minty black fruit commingling with cassis and iris flower. Doesn't quite "flow" like subsequent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, fleshy on the mid-palate and concentrated in the context of the vintage. A touch of burnt toast and white pepper appears on the finish. It doesn't have the same complexity as, say, the 2008 or 2012, but it will continue to age nicely in bottle.
Drink 2024 - 2040
Neil Martin, Vinous.com (June 2024)
The blend is 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot harvested between September 29 and October 15.
The 2004 Mouton Rothschild is supple, forward and inviting. Dark cherry, plum, tobacco and grilled herbs are all pushed forward. This is an especially succulent Mouton, partly because of the high percentage of Merlot that was common during this era. Gravel, pencil shavings, smoke and cured meats add myriad shades of nuance to the powerful, explosive finish. Philippe Dhalluin told me he waited as long as possible to harvest in 2004, the driest vintage Mouton had seen up until that point.
Drink 2016 - 2034
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (May 2016)
Deep garnet-black. There’s a wonderful purity of fruit on the nose with aromas of warm blackcurrant, dark cherries, dark chocolate, anise, cinnamon and a waft of cedar. The palate is relatively rich with a medium to full body and a good amount of ripe, mouth-filling fruit. Medium+ level of velvety tannins and medium+ acidity provide a nice balance. It has a long, spicy finish.
Drink 2011 - 2030+
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (May 2009)
The 2004 Mouton-Rothschild was the first vintage for Philippe Dhalluin, who successfully persuaded the late Philippine de Rothschild to institute a more strict selection with respect to Mouton-Rothschild. The outstanding 2004 exhibits delicious notes of cedarwood, Christmas fruitcake, blackcurrants and toast. The wine possesses outstanding concentration, medium to full body, excellent purity, hints of forest floor and underbrush, and sweet, velvety tannin. It is on a fast evolutionary track, so consume this over the next 10-15 years.
Drink 2014 - 2029
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (December 2014)
Dhalluin’s first 100% harvest. Picked the young vines separately and sacrificed them. A transition vintage. 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 14% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot. Wanted to avoid a revolution. Very strict selection. Just 50% of the total crop. ‘My predecessor was allowed to make far more Mouton. Very good, very Mouton nose. Mouton has an advantage in cooler years because of our sunny terroir. But in very hot vintages, we have to work very hard and be very careful to avoid overripeness. We always have two to three days in advance.’
Dark crimson. Fresh and gorgeous. Ready. Just very very slightly stringy on the end.
Drink 2015 - 2028
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (September 2015)
I drank this 2004 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild at home with some wine producers the other night. I decanted it only right before serving - a mistake made while concentrating on the cooking food. There were coffee and chocolate aromas on the nose with hints of vanilla. It was super fruity, and its medium body was coupled with beautifully soft tannins. This is just coming around now, and it's very New World in style. Overall, a much-overlooked vintage from Mouton.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (June 2016)
This astoundingly good wine tied Haut-Brion for top honours in our recent horizontal tasting of the 2004 vintage. The accessible bouquet was redolent of plum, blackcurrant, and spice, with an edge of leather and gunflint. The texture was silky and dense, with a plump, velvety length that was both hedonistic and subtle. This wine was the unanimous favourite in its flight, and demonstrated a youthful character that suggests that it has another 20 or 30 years of potential ageing.
Charles Curtis MW, Decanter.com (March 2024)
Good full ruby-red. Expressive aromas of currant, coffee, dark chocolate, tobacco, mocha and smoked meat. Juicy, spicy and classically dry; rather tight and backwards for 2004 and not a particularly fleshy style, even if it's nicely sweetened by nutty oak. But this boasts excellent precision and verve, and the aromatic finishing flavours build slowly and steadily. Firm acids and tannins give this plenty of backbone for development in bottle. With extended aeration, the texture became silkier.
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (May 2007)
About this WINE
Château Mouton Rothschild
Classified as a First Growth, Château Mouton Rothschild has a long and storied history; wine has been made here since Roman times. The property spans 82 hectares of vines in Pauillac, planted with the classic varieties of the region, Cabernet Sauvignon being predominant.
The estate has been in the Baron Philippe de Rothschild family since 1853, but it wasn’t until the arrival of Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1922 that its fortunes were transformed. Baron Philippe was a dynamic figure who revolutionised the estate and was the first to introduce château-bottling in 1924. He also introduced the concept of commissioning an artist to design each new vintage’s label. Some of the most notable contributors include Salvador Dalí, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Anish Kapoor and Peter Doig.
His daughter Baroness Philippine continued to help raise the estate to new heights with numerous endeavours, including the inauguration of a new vat house in 2013. Today, her three children, Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, continue the efforts of their predecessors.
Following the retirement in 2020 of Philippe Dhalluin, the winemaking team is now headed up by Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy. With his team, he oversees over 83 hectares of vines, planted with Cabernet Sauvignon (78%), Merlot (18%), Cabernet Franc (3%), and Petit Verdot (1%). The average age of the vines is around 50 years.
Pauillac
Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.
For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.
Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.
Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.
Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.
Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.
Cabernet Sauvignon blend
Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.
In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and Australia.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
Buying options
Add to wishlist
Description
Château Mouton Rothschild is world renowned for its labels. Each vintage since 1945 has featured the work of a celebrated artist. For the 2004 vintage, the late Baroness Philippe de Rothschild approached the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III; one of his watercolours adorns the label. This is a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Two decades on from the vintage, this is a complex, maturing Claret from one of the region’s very best producers.
Tasting note
This astoundingly good wine tied Haut-Brion for top honours in our recent horizontal tasting of the 2004 vintage. The accessible bouquet was redolent of plum, blackcurrant, and spice, with an edge of leather and gunflint. The texture was silky and dense, with a plump, velvety length that was both hedonistic and subtle. This wine was the unanimous favourite in its flight, and demonstrated a youthful character that suggests that it has another 20 or 30 years of potential ageing.
Charles Curtis MW, Decanter.com (March 2024)
wine at a glance
Delivery and quality guarantee