2022 - Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac

Inky colour, cassis, cocoa bean, cocoa dusting, crushed rose petals, juice, pep, focus and crystalline character, a serious wine that will power for decades, intense and concentrated but with an oyster shell minerality, delicious quality. A great example of how brilliant Cabernet Sauvignon can be in this part of the world, and why it sets the benchmark globally. This is unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage. Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy director. 49% of production in the Grand Vin, 27% Petit Mouton. 100% new barrels for ageing, harvest September 1 to 26.

The blend is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot, and the élevage was in 100% new oak for 18 months. A glorious nose, so pure, with powdered chalk, incense and sandalwood, with a little dark curranty fruit lingering behind it all, as well as a fragrant little lift of mint and white flowers. A beautiful palate, polished and complete, filling every corner of the mouth with polished dark blackcurrant fruits, damson, olive and liquorice, with gentle seams of tobacco and toast, with a very complete and deeply buried core of tightly knit tannins which provide a beautiful structural frame for this dark fruit, while remaining demurely in the background. This is just beautiful, so complete, with spine-tingling integration and harmony, and such finesse of structure. So long too, those tobacco and cedar notes intertwined here with the long, tight-knit tannins. A fabulous Mouton, with brilliant potential;it seems a fitting tribute to Baron Philippe who arrived at the estate in 1922, as depicted on 2022 label art. The alcohol is 13.82% on analysis, and 14% on the label.

The 2022 Mouton Rothschild, built around 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, is a little reticent at first, as I noticed at primeur. It just requires several swirls of the glass to reveal its core of blackcurrant, cassis and violet scents. Underlying crushed stone and iodine notes join the chorus line later. The palate has exquisite balance. It is very concentrated, as you would expect, and perhaps a little more so than out of barrel—layers of black fruit fill and lacquer the mouth. Rich but effortlessly controlled, the 2022 fans out with decadence on the persistent finish. This is an audacious Mouton Rothschild that will offer decades of drinking pleasure.