Real purity of fruit with currants, blackberries and flowers that show on both the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied with layers of ripe tannins that are polished and creamy. Delicious finish. So attractive now. Second wine of Mouton. Ethereal. But give this three or four years to come around.

Is Le Petit Mouton the best second wine from Bordeaux today? After tasting the 2018, it is a distinct possibility. Dark in color, the nose jumps with 5 spice, currants, smoke, blackberries and light oak aromas. Silky, lush and polished with layers of sweet, ripe, fresh, round red fruits that build and linger. Disarmingly easy to taste, this has the ability to age for at least two decades. Blended using 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc, reaching 14% alcohol, part of the reason the wine feels so rich that for the first time, the wine was aged in 100% new, French oak barrels, instead of closer to 50%.

(94+ points) A brilliant effort that matches most estates' Grand Vins, the 2018 Le Petit Mouton De Mouton Rothschild (56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc) reveals a deep purple hue as well as a ripe yet fresh bouquet of crème de cassis, candied violets, graphite, lead pencil shavings, and background oak, with a touch of rocky, crushed stone-like minerality showing with time in the glass. Beautifully concentrated and full-bodied, with a solid spine of acidity and ripe polished tannins, give bottles 5-7 years, and it's going to evolve for 20-30 years or more. This is a serious, elegant yet powerful second wine.

The 2018 Le Petit Mouton is a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc. It represents about 26% of the total crop and has 14% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple colored, it struts its way out of the glass with showy, flamboyant scents of Morello cherries, blackcurrant pastilles, preserved plums and black raspberries, plus suggestions of potpourri and Chinese five spice. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers fantastic freshness with velvety tannins and loads of spicy sparks emanating from the red and black berry preserves layers, finishing with a minty kick. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Just as it was from barrel, the 2018 Le Petit-Mouton is fleshy, radiant and very easy to enjoy. Soft contours and silky tannins add to its considerable allure. Because of low yields, the Petit-Mouton was aged entirely in new oak. Rich, sumptuous and bold to the core, the 2018 is a rock star wine. -- Antonio Galloni

Made from young vines, this second wine of Mouton Rothschild was, unusually, aged in 100% new wood. While that does show as a vanilla edge to the wine, the ripe black fruits are moving forward to give richness and density. Drink the wine from 2025. - Roger Voss

This is a serious, deep and beautifully enticing wine with plenty of that glossy, glamorous Petit Mouton appeal. Ripe damson in colour, it has more Merlot in the blend than a typical year because only a small amount of the variety made it through to the first wine. The Merlots were however, as you see at many Médoc properties, unusually rich and structured and this feels enveloping and hard to resist. Extraction was slow and careful and the liquorice, chocolate, grilled sarment notes are subtle but pressing.

Pure and focused, with a lovely caressing edge to its mix of plum sauce and warmed cassis fruit flavors that are augmented by smoldering earth, tobacco and alder notes that tug gently on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2032. – JM