Popular Wines

wines

This is pure pleasure, with tiny pulses of electricity, brushed leather, sulphur, loam, truffle, blackberry, black cherry, with touches of silky tannins, smoked caramel and black chocolate. A wine that makes you smile, so much depth and power, barely out of its primary phase, but we are starting now to get the whole picture of what it will become. There is a lush edge to the tannins now that was not the case even two years ago. Such a different expression from the 2009 and 2010 Mouton, with this a little more old school in its charms, and for me you can now project yourself foraward, more like the 1986, a little dry and strict at first, but finessed and gorgeous, delivering grip, punch and magic. Eric Tourbier and Philippe Dhalluin on the technical team. 63% first wine, extremely low for the time (lowest since 1975, whereas today they are regularly below 50%). If you are going to open this anytime soon, think of it as a bottle to enjoy very slowly over four or five hours seeing the nuances develop. 100% new oak.Jane Anson | 100 JAThe 2005 Mouton-Rothschild has developed magnificently, and is even better than I remember. The final blend was 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Stunning notes of crème de cassis, melted asphalt, roasted espresso and cedarwood are present in this young, full-bodied, powerful, concentrated Mouton. Just beginning to enter its adolescence, it should hit full maturity in 10-15 years and last for 50 or more. The greatness of this vintage is increasingly apparent as the wines throw off their cloaks of tannin.Robert Parker | 99+ RPOne of the real highlights on the Left Bank, the 2005 Mouton Rothschild is a dark, potent Pauillac. Black cherry, plum, chocolate, spice and leather all take shape in the glass. The 2005 is a dense, powerful and explosive wine endowed with tremendous energy and pure power. The fruit is just starting to emerge, but Mouton remains a very tight, super-classic wine. With time in the glass, some of the natural richness and radiance of the year starts to emerge. Even so, the 2005 is still very young and closed. A few more years in bottle will only be beneficial. Impressive. Tasted two times.Antonio Galloni | 98 AGGorgeous, with singed alder and juniper notes starting to strut their stuff, while the immense core of steeped red currant, blackberry and plum fruit continues to wait in reserve. A light sanguine thread weaves in on the back end, which is driven by a serious bolt of iron. Shows terrific grip, length and cut. A brick-house Pauillac built for the long haul.--Non-blind Mouton-Rothschild vertical (March 2017). Best from 2020 through 2050.Wine Spectator | 98 WS(Château Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, Red) Mouton was voluptuous and immediately appealing, with spicy ripe cassis and plum fruit that poured from the glass, surrounded by liquorice, coconut, and toasted cedar. The texture was not abrasive but very full-bodied and round. The tannins initially appeared fine-grained and silky, but with a bit of time, one realised the immense structure of this wine. Impressively concentrated and very long on the finish, this is still youthful and should age for decades to come. The blend is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with 14% Merlot, with a touch of Cabernet Franc. The picking for the grand vin started on 21 September for the Merlot and finished with the Cabernets on 3 October. (Drink between 2021-2040)Decanter | 98 DECThis accelerates on the palate with incredibly ripe tannins and finesse. Full body, roasted fruit, leather and grilled meat. Dried flowers, too. It shows superb tannin backbone and polish. Tight and youthful. Just starting to open. Currant and berry undertones with lead pencil are impressive. Better in 2018 but so delicious now.James Suckling | 98 JSIf 2005 was a rich year, Mouton reaches the heights of richness. Almost too rich, too New World, but you have to be impressed by the aromatic intensity of the black fruits, the dense, firm tannins, and the superripe black juice and licorice flavors. The wood is still too overpowering and needs time to settle in.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WE

One of my favorite vintages from this incredible terroir located on the upper plateau of Saint-Emilion, the 2009 Château Canon is just about pure perfection in a glass. It delivers a monster bouquet of blackberries, raspberries, white truffle, and flowery incense that develops beautifully with time in the glass. Rich, full-bodied, and powerful, it’s still classic Saint-Emilon, offering incredible minerality as well as structure. This brilliant wine can be drunk any time over the coming two decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDMedium to deep garnet colored, the 2009 Canon is a little reticent to begin, opening out to notions of rare beef, cast iron pan, cigar boxes and cloves with a core of baked plums and mulberries plus a waft of dried lavender. Full, richly fruited and sill quite youthful, the palate has a firm yet velvety texture and seamless freshness supporting the generous fruit, finishing long and mineral laced.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97+ RPA fleshy and generous St.-Emilion with a great interplay of fresh and super-ripe plum aromas. Behind this is quite a major tannin structure and plenty of chalky minerality that carries the bold finish beautifully. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019).James Suckling | 95 JSHugely dense, foursquare wine with great fruit and the purest tannins. Chocolate and coffee predominate at the same time as sweet tannins and acidity. A wine that combines charm with great power.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEThis is a creamy, lush, hedonist’s wine, with suave, textured layers of fig sauce, puréed plum and cassis woven with hints of mocha and pain d’épices. Picks up grip though, joined by a roasted mesquite hint on the finish for added length. Best from 2014 through 2025. 4,415 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSThe director of Canon in 2009 was John Kolasa, a less deft touch perhaps than Nicolas Audebert today, but still making some great wines. This has ripe fruits and a generous attack. It’s still very young but there are hints of a wine that’s starting to evolve, with moments of tobacco and leather. The mouthwatering juiciness through the back half of the palate is really appetising, and although it’s less precise than a Canon of today, you can certainly see all the building blocks here. It has a slightly savoury quality to the fruit, not displaying the excess of some St-Emilions in this vintage. A good quality wine, this is entering its drinking window but has plenty of time left. Drinking Window 2019 - 2038.Decanter | 93 DEC(Château Canon) The 2009 Canon is an unequivocally great wine in the making and will probably end up resembling the 1982 Canon in style, but prove to be superior to that fine bottle. As is the style of classically made wines such as this, today the ’09 Canon is tight, structured and only hinting at the superb complexity to come, but with its superb quality clearly evident. The bouquet offers up an excellent aromatic mélange of black cherries, dark berries, espresso, woodsmoke, herb tones, tobacco leaf, lovely soil tones and a touch of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, ripe and rock solid at the core, with impeccable balance, firm, ripe tannins and great focus and grip on the long, properly reserved and chewy finish. A great classic in the making. (Drink between 2020-2070).John Gilman | 93-94+ JGThe 2009 Canon has a surprisingly muted bouquet despite rigorous aeration, reluctantly offering black fruit, meat juices and light garrigues-like aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, slightly coarse tannin, quite spicy but overall, rather overbearing and lacking tension on the finish. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.Vinous Media | 91 VM

A wine of noble bearing and exceptional beauty, the 2010 Mouton Rothschild is a flat-out stunner. The aromatics alone are beguiling. On the palate, the wine is every bit as thrilling, with myriad layers of flavor that continue to open up in the glass. Graphite, gravel, smoke, plum, black cherry and savory herbs are all strikingly delineated throughout. Vivid and crystalline, the 2010 is a jewel of a wine, but it is impossibly young now. Readers who can be patient will be treated to a fabulous wine. Today, the 2010 reminds me of a more civilized version of the 1986. The 2010 is 94% Cabernet Sauvignon (the highest amount of Cabernet ever here). Dollops of Merlot round out the blend. Harvest took place between September 29 and October 13.Antonio Galloni | 100 AGSmoked grilled tar on the nose, it feels both very 2010 and supremely Mouton - accomplished and confident. A more glamorous, enticing edge than the other Pauillac Firsts at this 10 year window. There are plentiful tannins but they are lined with air, and the overall feel is of plush, plumped fruits, like being rolled-up in luxurious sheets. It is very different in character to the other two Pauillac Firsts, but no less enjoyable. It feels higher in alcohol, more Cos than Lafite in terms of personality, in the way that Pichon Baron is more Latour than Comtesse, but it is nuanced and clever and surprising. Drinking Window 2025 - 2050Decanter | 100 DECClearly a perfect wine that shows incredible depth of fruit with currants, dark chocolate, minerals and licorice. Full-bodied, tight and wound up with ripe tannins that let go and seduce you. Makes me want to drink it now. But this is a wine for the long term. Extraordinary. 94% cabernet sauvignon. Better in 2020.James Suckling | 100 JSThis remains the stunner, a battleship of a wine, brimming with cassis, blackberry and fig fruit that has melded together now, with the backdrop of alder, bay leaf and menthol starting to emerge a bit more. The long finish is loaded with grip, pulling the fruit and other components together. And then there’s that flash of iron at the very end. Awesome wine.--Non-blind Mouton-Rothschild vertical (March 2017). Best from 2025 through 2060.Wine Spectator | 99 WSOnly 49% of the production made it into the 2010 Mouton Rothschild, which has a strikingly beautiful label by Jeffrey Koons. This is a truly great wine, with a very high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (94%) and the other 6% Merlot. At 13.9% natural alcohol, Mouton’s director, Philippe Dhalluin, has clearly produced another 50- to 60-year wine that has a chance at perfection in about 15 years time, when I suspect this wine will be rounding into drinking condition. It is dense, rich and full-bodied, with the classic Mouton creme de cassis, forest floor, licorice and floral notes, but also some blueberry and hints of subtle espresso and mulberry. The wine has more minerality and precision than the rich, extravagantly opulent 2009, and while that may please some, others will have their patience tested as they wait and wait for this compelling Mouton Rothschild to hit full maturity.Robert Parker | 98+ RPA dense, smooth and opulent wine bursting with ripe Cabernet Sauvignon flavors. It’s regal and well structured, balancing the natural exuberance of Mouton with a more severe side. This is a wine with power, yet not without its charms from the fruitiness and final acidity. This great wine will age many, many years.Wine Enthusiast | 98 WE(Château Mouton-Rothschild) Prior to my visit to Mouton at the end of my trip, I had heard from several sources that this was a top-notch vintage for this great estate. Having now tasted the wine, I would have to say that such an assessment included more than a bit of wishful thinking, as the 2010 Mouton has not managed to carry its fourteen percent alcoholic ripeness without sacrificing precision on both the nose and palate. The wine offers up a ripe and fairly complex bouquet of black cherries, black raspberries, coffee bean, cigar smoke, soil and lead pencil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite broad-shouldered, with a rock solid core of ripe fruit, very firm, but well-integrated tannins and a long, slightly blurry finish. The harmony of acids, ripe fruit and firm tannins here are much better than in any of the other wines in the Mouton stable this year, but 2010 is a vintage where the strident ripeness has been very hard to harness and provide a wine with the customary focus and delineation that is almost taken for granted at Mouton-Rothschild. This is a good wine, but decidedly not a great vintage for Mouton. It may improve over the course of its elevage and eventually place at the higher end of this scoring range, but it is hardly a legend in the making. (Drink between 2025-2075)John Gilman | 87-91+ JG

A tour de force from Pessac-Leognan, the 2010 Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte matches the 2009 in terms of quality but possesses a more dense, powerful, compact style. Absolutely heavenly aromatics of blackcurrants, cassis, smoked tobacco, scorched earth, and truffle all define the aromatics, and it takes air to show at its best today. With full-bodied richness, massive concentration, and building tannins, it’s flawless balanced, has an insane level of purity, and incredible length on the finish. This brilliant, brilliant Graves will evolve gracefully for another 40+ years, although it’s insanely good today. Don’t miss it.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThis is an extraordinary performance once again from the Cathiard family, the proprietors of Smith-Haut-Lafitte. They think the 2010 is even better than the 2009. (I disagree, but only slightly.) This wine has laser-like definition in its an remarkable nose of a subtle charcoal fire interwoven with spring flowers, creme de cassis, blueberry liqueur and spicy wood. Full-bodied, stunningly concentrated, long, rich and moderately tannic, this wine is set for an exceptionally long life of 30-40 years but can be drunk in 5-7.Robert Parker | 98 RPThe 2010 vintage at Smith Haut Lafitte was one of the wines that woke me up to what was happening at this estate, and it is absolutely delivering today. Very much coffee beans and black chocolate; it is on the gourmet side but with layers and freshness by the bucketload. Accomplished, confident winemaking and a showcase in winemaking precision. Great stuff, cassis, blueberry; blackberry, juicy and vibrant. (Drink between 2020-2048)Decanter | 97 DECGorgeous, with alluring black tea and warm ganache notes that unfurl slowly, while the core of intense steeped plum, anise, blackberry compote and black currant confiture sits patiently in reserve. The beautiful loam-, tobacco- and tar-filled finish displays major heft, but also remarkable polish and grace. Should age very slowly.Wine Spectator | 96 WSA beautifully ripe wine with great black fruits that burst through the classic tannins. In its richness and in its structure, it combines the best of the vintage. Dark, complex, fruity and very rich, a magnificent wine for long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2010 Smith Haut-Lafitte has one of the most backward bouquets among its peers and required more coaxing from the glass. It eventually offers well defined blackberry, wild strawberry, sous-bois and tobacco notes, quite serious but very engaging. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannins. There is good body and density here, but it loosens up towards the finish with a lovely touch of sea salt and liquorice on the aftertaste. Superb. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 95 VMAromas of blueberries, blackberries and plums follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and a fruity finish. Lots of mushroom and fruit undertones. Very polished. Such finesse yet structure to this young wine. Better in 2007.James Suckling | 95 JSMonsieur Derenoncourt really seems to be sinking his teeth into the Smith Haut-Lafitte red these days, and the 2010 is really a pretty good example of the vintage and seems decidedly more successful than several of the Right Bank estates where his consulting firm also oversaw the winemaking. I much prefer it at this stage the 2010 Smith Haut-Lafitte to the 2009 here, as there seems to be quite a bit better overall balance in the newer wine. The nose offers up a deep and powerful mélange of sappy cassis, black cherries, cigar smoke, chocolate and plenty of well-integrated new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite extracted, with good mid-palate density, firm, but ripe tannins and very good length and grip on the well-balanced finish. There is a certain sense of density here that cannot be overlooked, but one has the feeling that the wine has the equilibrium to age quite well and could be even more impressive ten years down the road. One has to say that the ripeness of the vintage was negotiated very well here. (Drink between 2020-2050)John Gilman | 88-90+ JG

The 2015 L’Eglise-Clinet is one of the wines of the vintage. Even better from bottle than it was from barrel, the 2015 towers out of the glass with stunning power and richness. Super-ripe black cherry, plum, licorice, tobacco and menthol are some of the many notes pulse through this riveting Pomerol. There is plenty of structure, but the tannins are nearly buried by the sheer intensity of the fruit. Hints of lavender, smoke, spice, licorice reappear to round out the finish. L’Eglise-Clinet is 90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, aged in 70% new oak. More importantly, the 2015 is a total pleasure bomb. This a fabulous wine from Denis Durantou. Don’t miss it.Antonio Galloni | 99 AGThe violets, roses and dark fruits are so evident but they entice you in a subtle and fresh way. Full-bodied, dense and tannic, yet everything is so in tune with everything else and there are no hard edges or loose ends. It’s like a whirlpool that draws you down and then shows you its beauty. The harmony and complexity is phenomenal. Try in 2024 but I don’t want to wait.James Suckling | 99 JSComposed of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2015 L’Eglise Clinet comes bursting out of the glass with a gorgeous perfume of exotic spices and potpourri over a core of blueberry compote, red currant jelly, spiced black plums and mulberries with touches of unsmoked cigars, powdered cinnamon and licorice. Big, rich and full-bodied, the palate offers exquisite harmony, packed with exotic spice and red and black fruit layers, finishing on an epically long-lasting mineral note. In an understated word: WOW.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 98+ RPThis delivers a fresh, enticing beam of raspberry, boysenberry and blackberry coulis flavors that stretch out admirably while light anise, singed apple wood and fruitcake notes check in. Picks up some sneaky grip and a pretty mineral twinge through the finish. Rather elegant overall considering how much is here. Best from 2020 through 2035. 1,510 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSThe second wine of Eglise Clinet, the 2015 La Petite Eglise is a pretty, elegant, even Burgundian, 2015 that opens up beautifully with time in the glass, Ripe red currants, cherries, sandalwood, cedary spice, and dried floral notes all emerge from this medium-bodied 2015 that has fine tannin and a great finish. It’s certainly not a blockbuster but excels on its finesse and elegance. Drink it anytime over the coming decade. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to taste the top cuvee from this estate.Jeb Dunnuck | 92 JD