Château MOUTON ROTHSCHILD 2011
Château Mouton Rothschild is located in the town of Pauillac, in Bordeaux. It was added to the Premiers Crus Classés defined in the 1855 classification in 1973. The château existed under the name of Brane-Mouton, but when the Rothschild family bought the property in 1853, they renamed it and quickly established its reputation. Baron Philippe de Rothschild took control in 1922 and introduced bottling at the château in 1924. At the end of World War II, he commissioned a different artist each year to design the label. The estate includes 90 hectares of vines, mostly on gravel-based soils, and is located in the northern part of the commune just south of Château Lafite Rothschild. Most of the vineyard is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, with 15% Merlot and a small amount of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The harvest is done by hand and the juice is fermented in oak vats. After fermentation, the wine spends 22 months in new oak barrels before bottling.
Mouton's parent company, Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA, also owns the Châteaux d’Armailhac and Clerc Milon in Pauillac, the Domaine de Baronarques in Limoux and various other wine brands. In partnership, he also owns Almaviva in Chile and Opus One in California, a collaboration with Robert Mondavi. Another branch of the Rothschild family owns the adjacent property of Château Lafite-Rothschild.
The Château Mouton Rothschild 2011 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (90%), Merlot (7%) and Cabernet Franc (3%). The illustration of the label was designed by French painter and sculptor Guy de Rougemont, born in 1935 and member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France.
2011 was a difficult vintage in Bordeaux due to the capricious weather, particularly with a particularly dry winter and spring. This drought and this heat caused an exceptional precocity of the vegetative cycle of the vines but the summer was cooler and experienced classic rainy episodes in Bordeaux which restored the balance of good physiological development of the vines. The wines obtained are therefore very good and 2011 is considered a good vintage in Pauillac.
Grape varieties: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc
