93% Cabernet Sauvignon, paired with the first Château Mouton Rothschild label ever created by a Portuguese artist.

Château Mouton Rothschild 2023 is the Pauillac First Growth’s grand vin, blended from 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot. It combines the power associated with Mouton with the freshness and precision that define the strongest wines of the 2023 Bordeaux vintage.

The bottle is illustrated by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, whose work “Paraíso” places grapes at the centre of a colourful vision of nature and human craftsmanship.

Mouton Rothschild: promoted to First Growth in 1973

Château Mouton Rothschild is one of the defining estates of Pauillac on Bordeaux’s Left Bank.

It was classified as a Second Growth in the 1855 Classification, a decision Baron Philippe de Rothschild spent decades challenging.

In 1973, a decree signed by Jacques Chirac, then France’s Minister of Agriculture, officially elevated Mouton Rothschild to Premier Cru Classé.

The estate is equally famous for the way it has brought wine and contemporary art together.

93% Cabernet Sauvignon in the 2023 blend

The 2023 grand vin is composed of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot.

Mouton’s vineyard is centred on the Plateau de Mouton, a gravelly rise reaching roughly 27 metres above sea level. Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the estate plantings and gives the wine its tannic structure, aromatic depth and ability to age.

In 2023, Cabernet is particularly prominent. With Merlot at just 7%, dark fruit, graphite and fine but substantial tannins form the core of the wine.

A mild winter and the hottest June since records began

After the dry conditions of 2022, a mild and wet winter restored water reserves in the soil.

The growing cycle began well in early April, and flowering at the end of May took place around five days ahead of the average.

June then became the hottest June recorded by the estate since temperature records began in 1962.

Although much of France suffered repeated heatwaves during summer, the Bordeaux vineyards experienced only two especially hot spells, in late August and early September. The latter coincided with the beginning of harvest.

Harvest from 7 to 30 September

The 2023 harvest at Mouton ran from 7 to 30 September.

Conditions during picking alternated between hot, sunny days and stormy periods.

According to the estate, the rainfall proved useful: it slowed sugar accumulation while helping refine the grape skins as the fruit continued to mature.

Summer-like sunshine returned in the final week of September, allowing the harvest to finish under ideal conditions.

Ripe blackberry, dark chocolate and graphite

The estate describes the colour as gleaming garnet with crimson highlights.

The nose opens with fully ripe blackberry fruit, followed by discreet pastry, confectionery and dark-chocolate notes.

The palate is smooth, full and energetic, with powerful but polished tannins seamlessly integrated into the wine.

Graphite, smoky char, toasted hazelnut and cocoa bean add depth and carry through a long finish.

The 2023 combines ripe dark fruit and opulence with freshness and precision rather than sheer weight.

The 2023 label: Joana Vasconcelos and “Paraíso”

Since 1945, each vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild has carried the reproduction of an original artwork created specially for the estate by a contemporary artist.

For 2023, the commission went to Joana Vasconcelos, the first Portuguese artist ever to create a Mouton label.

Her work is titled “Paraíso” — “Paradise” in Portuguese.

A cluster of grapes sits at the centre, surrounded by the elements required to make a great wine: earth, water, sunlight and the cool of the night.

The point of a triangle represents the human hand — a beneficial intervention within nature’s cycle. The image expresses wine as a collaboration between terroir and human craft.

Art and wine recording a single vintage

Mouton’s labels are more than decoration.

Since the 1945 “V for Victory” label, artists including Picasso, Chagall, Warhol, Basquiat, Jeff Koons and Chiharu Shiota have contributed works to the series.

Vasconcelos’s “Paraíso” now joins that sequence, preserving the identity of the 2023 vintage in both wine and art.

Château Mouton Rothschild 2023

France | Bordeaux | Pauillac | Premier Cru Classé | 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot | Red wine | Vintage 2023 | Harvest 7–30 September | 750ml

Dark fruit, graphite and finely integrated tannins reflect a Cabernet-dominant Mouton, while the freshness of 2023 keeps the wine precise and energetic. Joana Vasconcelos’s “Paraíso” completes the vintage by turning the bottle itself into a record of the relationship between nature, craftsmanship and art.

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