Home » Wine Profiles » Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 1986

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Review Highlights

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  "Not as youthful as two years ago with primary fruit but still stuns you with the amount of fruit has left." Read full review »

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  "Currant, currant leaf, cedar and dusty oak on the nose." Read full review »

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  "Mint, mineral, berry and cherry." Read full review »

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  "In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets, the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive)." Read full review »

Winemakers Notes

After stumbling over some wines I thought were high class Bordeaux, I nailed this wine in one of the blind tastings for this article. In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets, the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive). To put it mildly, the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild held its own (and then some), in a flight that included the Caymus Special Selection, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard. Clearly read more...the youngest looking, most opaque and concentrated wine of the group, it tastes as if it has not budged in development since I first tasted it out of barrel in March, 1987. An enormously concentrated, massive Mouton-Rothschild, comparable in quality, but not style, to the 1982, 1959, and 1945, this impeccably made wine is still in its infancy. Interestingly, when I was in Bordeaux several years ago, I had this wine served to me blind from a magnum that had been opened and decanted 48 hours previously. Even then, it still tasted like a barrel sample! I suspect the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild requires a minimum of 15-20 more years of cellaring; it has the potential to last for 50-100 years! Given the outrageously high prices being fetched by so many of the great 1982s and 1990s (and lest I forget, the 1995 Bordeaux futures), it appears this wine might still be one of the "relative bargains" in the fine wine marketplace. I wonder how many readers will be in shape to drink it when it does finally reach full maturity?    (hide)

What to Expect

Arguably the most renowned wines on earth, the classed growths of Bordeaux continue to epitomize the power and complexity Bordeaux blends are capable of. While most wines here are based on Cabernet Sauvignon, both Merlot and Cabernet Franc play important roles in adding layered complexity to the finished wines, and allow winemakers in each commune within the region to use the blend that is best suited to their unique combination of soil and meso-climate. The most famous communes each have their own classic traits with St. Estephe giving full, if rustic wines, from the heavy clay soils, to Paulliac's elegant balance of ripe fruits, minerality and structure to St. Julien's rich blackberry core and supple feel. Moving to the South of the region brings one to Margaux, with its notes of flowers and berries draped over a feminine frame, and then to the Graves region with wines redolent of tobacco, gravel and smoke. To the East lies the famous appellations of St. Emillion, with its wonderfully ripe Cabernet Franc, and Pomerol where Merlot rules the roost and produces deep, plush wines of uncommon refinement.

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