Vinous - Score: 100 (2018 June)

The 1949 Mouton Rothschild is a wine that I have never tasted but as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. It is blessed with a bewitching bouquet that is atypically outgoing and sensual for a usually more conservative millésime: copious red berry fruit, blood orange, graphite, Tuscan delicatessen with sawdust sprinkled over the floor, overripe Satsuma and whatever menthol was left over from the ’45. But this is all delivered with the most sensational detail and delineation that you are lost for words. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent, lithe tannin, precocious red fruit that seem confit-like, glimpses of dried blood, cassis, sandalwood and fresh figs that have a crystalline quality that is bewildering. Michael Broadbent once gave the 1949 Mouton-Rothschild six stars. This bottle evinced why he had every right to deceive mathematical logic. Tasted at the International Business & Wine First Growth Dinner at the Four Seasons.