1986 Mouton-Rothschild Bordeaux Blend - France - Bordeaux - Pauillac - Red - First Growth

($310-$575) Good medium ruby. Currant, currant leaf, cedar and dusty oak on the nose. Tightly wound and classic, with fabulous acids contributing to its powerful spine. Wonderfully pure and intense, with great verve and grip. But still quite locked up, and hiding its density. Finishes firmly tannic and extremely long. I remember mistaking the '86 Mouton for such international stars as Sassicaia in the early '90s, when it showed greater sweetness, but this wine has been quite shut down for the past several years. The '86 and the '82 appear clearly to be the two greatest vintages for Mouton since the 1959.

Quite exceptional depth and youthfulness of colour – it looks younger than either the 1989 or 1990, and possibly even than the 1995! Still quite amazingly closed on the nose. There is obviously quite a bt of alcohol in this wine, perhaps a note of licorice again. Thick, deep, brooding, this wine hardly seems to have changed over the last 15 years. Very, very dry with lots of tannin on the finish which I am forced to wonder whether they will ever be resolved? This is like very dry blackcurrant essence with a note of menthol. Overall at the moment this is still a bit of a brute and I do wonder whether it will ever soften?

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 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?

Ageless, yet balanced. Black color. Mint, mineral, berry and cherry. Full-bodied, chewy and tight. Long, long finish. A great, great wine.--Bordeaux retrospective. Drink now.