PETIT MOUTON
2018 Pauillac Château Mouton Rothschild
56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc. Like the Grand Vin this Petit Mouton possesses a sumptuous nose with slightly more red fruit in evidence. It's gorgeously creamy on the mid-palate and the tannins are very fine indeed. Perhaps not quite the energy and travel on the palate as the 2016 but there's certainly no shortage of easy appeal. Drinking range: 2025 - 2040L&S (Apr 2019)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2018 Le Petit Mouton continues a strong run for this Second Wine. It has an upfront, quite bold bouquet offering a mixture of red and black fruit, freshly tilled soil, potpourri and cedar. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins on the entry. A structured Le Petit Mouton with good grip and salinity. It becomes a little peppery toward the finish, and the graphite lingering on the aftertaste is très Pauillac. Excellent. Drinking range: 2023 - 2040 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2021)
Just as it was from barrel, the 2018 Le Petit-Mouton is fleshy, radiant and very easy to enjoy. Soft contours and silky tannins add to its considerable allure. Because of low yields, the Petit-Mouton was aged entirely in new oak. Rich, sumptuous and bold to the core, the 2018 is a rock star wine. Drinking range: 2022 - 2033 Rating: 93 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Mar 2021)
Real purity of fruit with currants, blackberries and flowers that show on both the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied with layers of ripe tannins that are polished and creamy. Delicious finish. So attractive now. Second wine of Mouton. Ethereal. But give this three or four years to come around. Rating: 97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2021)
The 2018 Le Petit Mouton De Mouton-Rothschild is a beauty and shows both the richer, sexy style of the vintage as well as notable elegance and purity. Crème de cassis, violets, and lead pencil notes all emerge from this richly textured, full-bodied, yet pure and precise beauty. With building tannins and a great finish, it should be drinkable in just 3-5 years yet keep for three decades. The blend is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc brought up in 60% new French oak. Rating: 93-95 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (May 2019)
The 2018 Le Petit Mouton is blended of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc, harvested September 10 to October 3. It represents about 26% of the total crop and has 14% alcohol—the alcohol has never been this high! Deep garnet-purple, it comes bounding out of the glass with sit-up-and-beg notes of crème de cassis, plum preserves and mulberries plus nuances of chocolate box, Chinese five spice, licorice and candied violets. Full-bodied, rich and oh-so-hedonic, the palate is packed with juicy black fruit layers wrapped in a firm, velvety structure, with loads of fragrant spice layers on the very long finish. Rating: 92-94 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2019)
Black cherry to the rim, very dark. Ripe, sweet and gently chocolatey on the nose. Ripe plum and cassis. Fleshy and generous on the palate, rounded and smooth even though there's clearly massive structure. Just enough freshness. Rich rather than elegant, the fruit ripe and lifted. Much more open than many wines from this vintage. Fruit bomb but well structured and just a hint of chocolate. Drinking range: 2024 - 2036 Rating: 16.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)
The second wine is 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc, picked from September 10th until October 3rd, as per the grand vin. It takes just 20% of the crop, so presumably 14% was downgraded into a third wine or sold off. A beautiful dark hue, with a vibrant rim, and the nose is classic 2018, dark, rich, and exploding with black cherry, damson, violet cream and peony. The palate is fresh, charming, richly polished, with a slightly minerally black-fruit character, touched with nuances of violets, plum cream, black bean and black pepper. This has the sinewy poise and energy of the vintage, with plushly polished tannins, grippy through the middle and end, with fresh acidity. An impressive showing here, with such lovely primary potential. Rating: 94-96 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2019)
Château Mouton Rothschild
1855 classification (revised 1973) - Premier Grand Cru Classé The Ségur family, who owned at one time both Lafite and Latour, and had a hand briefly in Haut Brion, also owned Mouton for two years. They sold it to Joseph de Brane in 1720 and the estate was re-christened Brane-Mouton. Unfortunately, it was an estate without a château, the buildings having been sold seperately to Dominique Armailhacq and forming the nucleus of what is today Château d'Armailhac. Under the de Brane family, Mouton steadily gathered a reputation for its wine, with prices nearly equalling the best estates of the day. The de Branes sold Mouton in 1830 and the new owners failed to keep up the previous high standards. In 1853, Brane-Mouton became Mouton-Rothschild when Nathaniel Rothschild purchased the estate, and Mouton-Rothschild started its steady rise to become one of the world's iconic wines. Not iconic enough in 1855 to be granted Premier Grand Cru Classé - a slight described by Baron Phiippe as "the monstrous injustice". It was said that the recent sale of the estate to an Englishman prevented Mouton's recognition among the elite, the truth is probably more complicated. However, the "monstrous injustice" was corrected in 1973 with a unprecedented revision of the 1855 classification raising Château Mouton Rothschild to First Growth status. The Rothschild era at Mouton has seen continuous improvement. Astoundingly, it took until the latter half of the 19th Century for anyone to build an actual château at Mouton-Rothschild when Baron James built the Petit Mouton. An iconic estate deserves an iconic character, and he arrived in 1922 when Baron Philippe de Rothschild toopk over, assuming full ownership in 1947 when he bought out his brothers. A new chais was built and all of the wines were estate bottled, something not common at the time. Baron Philippe bought the neighbouring Château Mouton-Armailhacq in 1933, renaming it Château Mouton Baron Philippe (now Château d'Armailhac). From younger vines of his two estates, Baron Philippe created the popular Bordeaux brand Mouton Cadet. To celebrate the end of WWII, during which time Baron Philippe had had to escape from Vichy imprisonment to join the Free French forces in England, and the German military had taken over Château Mouton Rothschild, the 1945 vintage was bottled with a "V for Victory" label. Thereafter, a new label was designed every year by a contemporary artist, the labels becoming every bit as collectable as the wine. The vineyards sit on a raised mound known as a "motte", from which it is presumed the name Mouton derives. Mouton-Rothschild sits immediately to the south of Lafite. For red wines the 75ha of vineyards are planted to 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc with a little Petit Verdot. Wines are fermented in barrique and aged for 22 months before bottling. A second wine was introduced in 1993 - Le Petit Mouton with old-fashioned looking label that was designed by Jean Carlu who had designed the Mouton-Rothschild label in use before the War. A small amount of white wine - Aile d'Argent - is produced from mostly Sauvignon Blanc.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those on the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do contact our private client team via email or on 020 7018 0187.
Ordering
Prices are all in bond by the case size stated.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment to buy wines on release, as long as the release price is within the upper and lower price bands set by you on the pre-order form. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability but providing this firm commitment to buy effectively gives you priority and is a good idea for the most desirable wines.
Wines listed on the website can be ordered in the usual way via the website wishlist order form. You can also send orders directly to our private client team via email. Please note that, for the most sought-after wines, priority will be given to those who ordered the same wines last year and to those that have pre-ordered.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of email confirmation. Pre-orders are not binding if the release price is above your upper price band.
Invoices are all raised at the in bond price (excluding any duty and VAT) which will become payable at the prevailing rates when the wines arrive in the UK, should you wish to take duty paid delivery.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We regret we cannot accept credit cards for en primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (at LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £500. Orders below this total will be charged an administration and handling fee of £16.50+ VAT when invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery of 2023 Bordeaux bought en primeur is expected during 2026. Delivery dates may vary as wines are shipped from Bordeaux at different times.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes). Immediate payment of invoices is then required by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option but please note that confirmed orders are still binding even if the final invoice has not yet been issued.
Please specify on your wishlist order form where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. If this is to a third-party bonded warehouse, please specify the relevant account details. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue a second invoice for duty and VAT at the prevailing rate when the wines are available for delivery.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the format you want. While most of our listings are for 75cl bottles, we can source wines in any format that is offered by the Château. Please note that format requests cannot be changed once wines have been invoiced. Additional charges for special formats do apply and are as follows:-
- +£18.00 per case of 12 half-bottles
- +£30.00 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£7.50 per case of 3 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£11.00 per case of 6 Magnums
- +£45.00 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£60.00 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.
Storage Options:
Wines bought en primeur won't arrive in the UK until 2026. If you do not wish to take home delivery at that point, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our private client team for more information.