Dinner at Restaurant Daniel with Six Vintages of Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Savor a sumptuous four course dinner at Daniel Boulud's elegant French flagship restaurant, Daniel, accompanied by six vintages of the first growth Bordeaux Château Mouton Rothschild, with Managing Director/Winemaker, Phillipe Dhalluin. We will begin with a reception with hors d' oeuvres and vintages of both Le Petit Mouton and Aile D’Argent. Thank you to Greg Hurst for organizing this special event.

 

 

Château Mouton Rothschild-Only an average of 40% of the wine produced on the estate is declared good enough to be blended into a bottle of Mouton Rothschild. All of it is harvested from the older First Growth vines and then selected for quality by Dhalluin. Like Baron Philippe Rothschild himself, these wines are not shy and retiring, but flamboyant, full of extravagant spices, personality and decadence. It’s a wine for hedonists and sensualists. Ian D’Agata described the 2009 vintage in Decanter as, “Opulent, luscious and rich: Mouton at it’s exotic, showy best. Multi-layered and complex, with wave after wave of ripe red and dark berry aromas and flavors, complicated by sweet spices, violet and cigar box. Rich and ripe but marvelously precise and light on its feet.” Château Mouton Rothschild goes through a unique winemaking process that focuses on preserving the integrity of the grape, and marries tradition with technology. Grapes (81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and just 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot) are picked by hand and transported to the Grand Chai, the building where all of Mouton’s vinification processes happen, in open baskets. After they are destemmed by a machine, the grapes are hand-sorted on vibrating tables and then transferred to gravity-fed vats. Essentially, these vats allow the grapes to be pressed and fermented entirely through all-natural processes. The vats at the Château each contain only the grapes from individual parcels on the estate. This makes it easy for the head winemaker, Philippe Dhalluin, to pick out the best blends for each vintage. Most of the vats are made of oak — in fact, Mouton is one of very few wineries in the Médoc region to still use traditional oak vats — but there are some stainless steel vats for certain parcels on the estate as well. After fermentation, the wines are transferred to new oak barrels to age for about 20 months. The Château follows traditional topping off and fining with egg whites to make sure their wines are crystal clear once bottled.

 

Le Petit Mouton-which is harvested earlier in the season and made from the estate’s younger vines. However, it still goes through the same vinification and selection process as Château Mouton Rothschild, and is a very high-quality Bordeaux. It’s been described as well balanced and fruit-forward, with plenty of spice notes.

 

Finally, the estate produces one white wine, Aile D’Argent, made with 53% Sauvignon Blanc, 35% Semillon, 11% Sauvignon Gris and 1% Muscadelle grapes. It’s characterized as “rich, complex and elegant,” but is only produced in very small quantities

 

Château Mouton Rothschild

 

DANIEL

 

For aperitif:

 

Domaine de Baronarques Grand Vin blanc Chardonnay (vintage to be defined)

Aile d’Argent, Grand Vin blanc (vintage to de defined)

 

For starters :

 

Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild (vintage to be defined)

 

For main courses:

 

Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild 2012 and Mouton Rothschild 2007 (1^st dish)

Mouton Rothschild 2006 and Mouton Rothschild 2005 (2^nd dish)

Mouton Rothschild 2003 and Mouton Rothschild 1996 in Magnum (3^rd dish) - maybe cheese?

 

Philippe Dhalluin will serve some Cassis from Mouton for the dessert