- Mouton Rothschild’s last five vintages have received the highest average critic scores from Neal Martin and James Suckling.
- Parker’s highest scored demi-decade is 2006-2010, elevated by his praise for 2009 and 2010.
- The 1945 Mouton Rothschild, which is also its most expensive vintage, consistently tops the critics’ rankings – but 2016 has the most 100-point scores.
The second in a series of articles analysing one of most traded fine wine brands, Château Mouton Rothschild, looks at its highest scoring vintages across various critics.
The first piece examined its best performing, most expensive and most traded vintages globally.
Scoring trends
Mouton Rothschild has enjoyed plenty of praise from wine critics worldwide. Grouping its vintages by demi-decade highlights some of the broader trends and reveals different critics’ stylistic preferences.
Historically, Robert Parker, Neal Martin and James Suckling are the three critics that have reviewed the widest array of Mouton Rothschild vintages, using the 100-point scale.
Parker gave his highest average scores to Mouton Rothschild’s 2006-2010 vintages. As recently explored, his extremely positive view on Bordeaux 2009 and 2010 helped push prices to record heights.
Martin, the most trusted Bordeaux critic following Parker’s retirement according to Liv-ex members, has scored the 2016-2020 vintages highest. His average score for these Mouton vintages is 97.2, 1.8 points higher than his 95.4-point average for the 2006-2010 vintages.
Suckling, meanwhile, has been the most generous from the three across all vintages since the beginning of the century. He has shared Martin’s view on the past demi-decade, which he awarded 99.4 points on average – the closest to perfection.
The granular view – Mouton Rothschild’s best vintages by latest critic scores
The tables in this section provide a more detailed view on the top-scoring Mouton Rothschild vintages from Parker, Martin, Suckling, Antonio Galloni, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW and Jeb Dunnuck.
Some common trends emerge. Where tasted, the 1945 vintage leads the way among critics, with three 100-point ratings from Parker, Martin and Perrotti-Brown.
In his first tasting note of the vintage, published in the Wine Advocate in 1992, Parker said that, “this wine has always had a special place in the hearts of all who have had the opportunity to taste a well-stored bottle of it”.
Perrotti-Brown re-tasted the wine in 2019 and wrote that, “if this finish does not bring a tear to your eyes, nothing will”.
Even more recently, in May 2020, Martin had a fourth encounter with the wine which he called, “monumental”. He continued: “Ethereal as always on the nose, that distinctive menthol scent is present and correct, and this bottle is perhaps more elegant and almost Burgundian in style.”
The 1959 and 1982 are two more classic older vintages that have been scored 100 by leading critics.
Across more recent vintages, 2010 repeatedly comes up among the best-scoring wines of Suckling and Galloni (100-points), as well as Martin and Perrotti-Brown (98-points).
The 2016 though has also grabbed the spotlight. With 99-points from Martin, and four 100-point scores from Suckling, Galloni, Perrotti-Brown and Dunnuck, it is not just the best-rated modern Mouton vintage but the highest-rated ever.
With a Market Price of £6,140 per 12×75, it is the most traded Mouton vintage by value so far in 2021.
