An Inside Look At The Recent Château Mouton Rothschild Dinner At EQ Kuala Lumpur’s Sabayon

Indeed, it was one specific member of the Rothschild family — Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild of the English branch — who, in 1853, purchased the property at Mouton, which had passed through the ownership of the ‘prince of vines’, Marquis Nicolas-Alexandre de Ségur, and the Barons de Brane. What he had purchased was ‘barely a dot on the map of France’, as described by the estate.

The purchase comprised a few dozen hectares (90, to be exact) of gravelly hillocks at Pauillac, an area known for vines since Roman times, located on the edge of the Médoc peninsula, at the border of the Landes Forest, with the Gironde estuary to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. “We cannot overstate the importance of the river, the freshness it gives the vines, allowing the vineyard to wake up following the winter season, and the river’s proximity, which warms the atmosphere by three to four degrees, saving the crop from frost,” Khaida continued.

Such a unique terroir, where heat is stored in the gravel and where sand and clay make it impossible for vegetation to thrive, possesses a rather remarkable ability. In this precise part of the world, Cabernet Sauvignon reaches its highest expression, with the roots of its vines extending several metres into the nutrient-rich clay-limestone base. And it is here, in the Pauillac appellation, that one can find the present-day origins of three of Bordeaux’s five First Growths: Châteaux Lafite, Latour and Mouton.

The secrets of the terroir, which confer elegance, power, rich tannins and longevity upon the wines, would eventually compel Baron Philippe de Rothschild, in 1922 and barely two decades into life, to devote himself to Château Mouton Rothschild. He would become the first in the wine world to bottle all his wine at the château. And in 1926, with the grand construction of his ‘Grand Chai’ — the great barrel hall designed by architect Charles Siclis — the baron commissioned a 100-metre-long architectural marvel that became a physical manifestation of its fabled wines.

By 1945, each vintage would bear a label featuring the reproduction of an original artwork, with Château Mouton Rothschild commissioning a contemporary artist for each release. These artists have ranged from Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí to Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. Along the way, the Museum of Wine in Art, established in 1962 and designed by Baron Philippe and his second wife, Baroness Pauline, became a requisite visit for oenophiles at Château Mouton Rothschild.

On this evening at Sabayon, organised by fine wine distributor Bordeaux Liquid Gold, the six-course dinner began with Japanese sole and uni, paired with the vibrant white peach and lemon zest notes of Champagne Barons de Rothschild Concordia Brut.

A 2014 Château Clerc Milon, with its recognisable label depicting two dancing clowns, was served with tea-smoked duck. This vintage offered a sense of the ‘catastrophic conditions’ of the year, with only an Indian summer saving the harvest. As Khaida explained: “Unlike the ‘Latin streak’ of the spectacular 2015 vintages, the wines of 2014, including the Clerc Milon, resulted in a ‘shy, elegant and genuine’ profile.”

Then came the shio-koji pigeon and, with it, Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild 2020 (‘extremely civilised, very fresh, precise’) and 2018 (‘a massive wine with a crazy concentration of polyphenols and a bigger tannic mass’). “Le Petit Mouton is a modern interpretation of the terroir of Mouton Rothschild,” Khaida said. For Le Petit Mouton, the château proposes a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and up to 30 per cent Merlot, giving the wine ‘lots of flesh, velvety aromas and sweetness which permit this wine to be a great Bordeaux, but in a more casual way’.

The main headliners would then enter the fray, firstly with the 2000 Mouton Rothschild and its unique Augsburg Ram artwork — a departure from the château’s tradition of commissioning living contemporary artists. The reason lay in the significance of the turn of the millennium, which prompted Baroness Philippine de Rothschild to sidestep any potential tension arising from favouring one living artist over another.

Instead, the château opted for the work of Jakob Schenauer, a German master goldsmith, as depicted on a 1590 drinking vessel. The original vessel resides in Château Mouton’s Museum of Wine in Art. An added dimension to the baroness’s diplomatic decision was the resulting two-year process of designing customised tools to create the chased golden artwork, making the 2000 vintage bottle almost as mythic as the 1945.

On the palate, the 2000 is charming and velvety, or as Khaida put it: “It’s just a glass of love.” With the venison loin, the 2006 vintage exhibited typical Bordeaux classicism — an almost austere elegance for which the wine region has long been known. Meanwhile, the 1996 vintage offered a study in contrast, a glimpse into the 2006’s future through an additional decade of evolution that amplified the wine’s characteristics. These traits ranged from its vivacious red hues and intense cherry and blackberry aromas to a silky palate of tannins, leading to a controlled depth of flavour resonant with brightness and freshness — qualities that Khaida described as ‘the magic of Bordeaux’.