Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1982

Second, then first

Chateau Mouton Rothschild stands in the village of Pauillac in the Medoc, about 50 kilometers northwest of the city of Bordeaux, its vines on slopes running down toward the Gironde estuary. The estate was known as Brane Mouton until 1853, when Nathaniel de Rothschild, an English member of the banking family, bought it from Isaac Thuret and renamed it.

Two years later the Bordeaux classification of 1855 ranked the wines largely by market price. Mouton sold for as much as Lafite yet was placed in the second tier, an exclusion Baron Philippe de Rothschild later called 'the monstrous injustice.' The estate's motto made the point: 'First, I cannot be. Second, I do not deign to be. Mouton I am.'

After decades of lobbying, Mouton was promoted to first growth starting with the 1973 vintage, the only change ever made to the 1855 red-wine rankings apart from the addition of Chateau Cantemerle in 1856. The motto changed to 'First I am. Second I was. Mouton does not change.' The 1982 was only the tenth vintage made as a first growth.

The baron, his daughter and a film director

Philippe de Rothschild was born in Paris on April 13, 1902, and took over the running of Mouton at 20, in 1922. He raced Grand Prix cars under the name 'Georges Philippe,' wrote plays and film scripts, and transformed the estate. Starting in 1924 he had the wine bottled at the chateau rather than by merchants, a radical idea at the time, and he commissioned the Cubist artist Jean Carlu to design a label to mark the change. After 1945 he made an artist's label a permanent annual tradition, with later labels by Dali, Picasso, Miro, Francis Bacon and many others.

For 1982, his sixtieth harvest, the baron wanted a label by his friend John Huston, the director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, who was also a boxer, horse trainer, big-game hunter and a painter since childhood. According to Jean-Pierre de Beaumarchais, the husband of the baron's daughter Philippine, the woman in charge of the estate's labels did not know how to reach him. Philippine found that Huston was filming Under the Volcano, released in 1984, in a remote spot in Mexico reachable only by boat, and set off alone. She came back three days later with his agreement.

Huston's watercolor shows the ram, Mouton's emblem, leaping 'in dionysiac joy' with the sun and a vine. Its dedication reads: 'In celebration of my beloved friend Baron Philippe's sixtieth harvest at Mouton.' The estate describes it as one of the last pictures he ever painted; Huston died on August 28, 1987. Baron Philippe died on January 20, 1988, and Philippine ran the estate until her death in August 2014.

The 1982 season and the critic it made

According to the chateau, the winter of 1982 was unusually mild and dry. Budbreak came evenly on March 30, warm weather held through April and May, and some welcome rain fell in June. Flowering ran from May 30 to June 3, almost 12 days ahead of average. A heat wave brought a violent storm on July 30, but August stayed fine without excessive heat, veraison began in the first days of the month, and September brought ideal ripening. The grapes, the estate says, were in 'absolutely outstanding condition.' Picking ran from September 15 to 24.

The vintage made a reputation as well as wines. The American critic Robert Parker called 1982 Bordeaux superb when others, such as the San Francisco critic Robert Finigan, found it too low in acid and too ripe. The vintage's success won Parker worldwide attention, and prices for 1982 Bordeaux have stayed consistently higher than for other vintages of the era. Parker bought his own 1982 first growths as futures in 1983.

Parker scored the 1982 Mouton 100 points, calling it 'one of the legends of Bordeaux' and writing that it appeared 'capable of remaining fruity and vibrant in 2082.' He called it one of the greatest, most impressively structured and richest young red wines he had ever tasted from cask.

The million-dollar lot

In 1997 the collector Park Smith bought 600 bottles of 1982 Mouton at auction for $420,500. The wine's provenance was considered assured, because the original consignor had bought it on release.

On November 18, 2006, Smith's 50 cases were sold as a single lot at auction in New York, with proceeds going to the College of the Holy Cross, his alma mater. After a bidding contest between the salesroom floor, absentee bids and the telephone, an anonymous European bidder on the phone won it for $1,051,600 including the buyer's premium, the highest price then paid for any single lot of wine at auction. That worked out to about $1,753 a bottle, at a time when the average auction price for the wine was reported as $787.

When the estate held its first auction in Asia, on January 30, 2015, in Hong Kong, six magnums of the 1982 sold for HK$441,000, or US$56,538, an auction record for the wine in that format. The sale helped fund a foundation set up in memory of Philippine de Rothschild.

Identifying it and drinking it today

The 1982 is identified by Huston's warm-toned watercolor of a leaping ram, the sun and a vine, with his dedication to the baron's sixtieth harvest. As with every Mouton artist's label, the image belongs to this vintage alone.

Tasters agree the wine took decades to come around. Parker wrote that while Mouton's 1985 evolved easily, the 1982 kept closing down; it later threw off its 'backward, youthful style' after about 25 years to show cedar and spice box. Jeb Dunnuck, tasting from magnum, called it 'utterly flawless' with 'no hard edges.' Jeff Leve, tasting it in February 2026, scored it 99 and suggested drinking it through 2042.

Bottle condition matters at this age. Parker himself wrote that 1982s bought at auction had often been far more evolved, some 'even decrepit,' compared with pristinely stored bottles of the same wine, and that this was one reason he stopped buying wine at auction.

The numbers

Vineyard today

About 90 ha (222 acres): 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot

1982 blend

85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot

Production

Formerly as much as 25,000 to 30,000 cases of the grand vin; about 20,000 cases or less today

Robert Parker

100

Jeb Dunnuck

100

James Suckling

100

Vinous

98

Stephen Tanzer

98

Decanter

97

Jeff Leve

99 (February 2026)

Timeline

1. 1853

   Nathaniel de Rothschild buys Brane Mouton and renames it Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

2. 1855

   Mouton is ranked a second growth in the Bordeaux classification.

3. 1922

   Philippe de Rothschild, 20, takes control of the estate.

4. 1924

   Mouton begins bottling its wine at the chateau, with a label by Jean Carlu.

5. 1945

   An artist's label marks the 1945 vintage; from 1946 the tradition becomes permanent.

6. 1973

   Mouton is promoted to first growth.

7. Mar 30, 1982

   Budbreak begins evenly for all three red varieties.

8. May 30, 1982

   Flowering begins, almost 12 days earlier than average.

9. Jul 30, 1982

   A violent storm follows heat-wave conditions.

10. Sep 15, 1982

    The harvest begins; it ends September 24.

11. 1983

    Robert Parker buys 1982 first growths as futures.

12. Aug 28, 1987

    John Huston, who painted the 1982 label, dies.

13. Jan 20, 1988

    Baron Philippe de Rothschild dies; his daughter Philippine takes over.

14. 1997

    Park Smith buys 600 bottles of the 1982 at auction for $420,500.

15. Nov 18, 2006

    Smith's 50 cases sell as one lot in New York for $1,051,600, a record for a single lot of wine.

16. Aug 2014

    Baroness Philippine de Rothschild dies at 80.

17. Jan 30, 2015

    Six magnums of the 1982 sell for US$56,538 at the estate's first auction in Hong Kong.

18. Feb 5, 2026

    Jeff Leve scores the 1982 99 points.

The world in 1982

• Apr 2, 1982

  Argentine forces take the Falkland Islands, starting a war that ends with Argentina's surrender on June 14.

• Jun 11, 1982

  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in the United States.

• Jul 11, 1982

  Italy beats West Germany 3-1 to win the World Cup in Spain.

• Aug 17, 1982

  The first compact discs are produced, in Germany.

• Sep 29, 1982

  Cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules kill seven people in the Chicago area.

• Nov 12, 1982

  Yuri Andropov succeeds Leonid Brezhnev as Soviet leader.

• Nov 29, 1982

  Michael Jackson releases Thriller in the United States.

• 1982

  John Huston's film Annie is released.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this wine every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

Every grade and recorded sale for this wine

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1982 is number 31 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (26 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• To get John Huston's label, Philippine de Rothschild traveled alone to a Mexican film location reachable only by boat and returned three days later with his promise.
• Huston's dedication on the label celebrates Baron Philippe's sixtieth harvest at Mouton.
• Mouton is the only estate ever promoted to first growth after the 1855 classification; the 1982 was its tenth vintage at that rank.
• A single 50-case lot of 1982 Mouton sold for $1,051,600 in 2006, at the time the highest price ever paid for one lot of wine at auction.
• Before his racing career ended in 1930, Baron Philippe drove Bugattis in Grand Prix races under the alias 'Georges Philippe.'
• A bottle of 1982 Mouton can be seen on the dinner table in the comedy Weekend at Bernie's.