The Wine Fairy

Welcome to another #MerlotThursday, where we make a weeknight meal of a bottle of Merlot! (And usually some food, too.)

Today’s wine is from the Mouton Cadet line of daily drinkers. The story of this label goes back to 1930, when a disastrous harvest resulted in wines that Baron Phillipe de Rothschild decided were not worthy of the name Mouton Rothschild.

But nobody likes to throw away grapes, and so some bum vintages from the early 1930s were declassified and labeled with the nickname “Cadet” (“younger son”). Later, the concept was expanded to include non-estate Bordeaux aimed at new wine drinkers. Mouton Cadet wines were marketed heavily in the 1950s and 1960s to English-speaking shoppers and diners, and the brand has been called the most successful in the history of Bordeaux.

In 2025, the strategy of selling early-drinking, entry-level Bordeaux is having another big moment. The Vins de Bordeaux trade association is currently in the second year of a campaign to modernize and re-brand the storied French wine region. Bordeaux wines are popping up at unlikely places like rock music festivals. A press release details one of their PR aims, namely, “proving to Gen X and millennial audiences that Bordeaux wines can also be enjoyed casually, away from the table.”

This past summer at the TEXSOM sommelier conference, I visited the #JointheBordeauxCrew booth for photo ops, games, and swag. I stopped by Mouton Cadet’s tasting table, where the new “Fresh Collection” wines were being poured. The acrylic ice buckets and splashy, beachy artwork hammered home the point that these Bordeaux are for chilling and drinking–not aging and pairing.

Mouton Cadet’s “Les Terroirs” collection is along those same lines. But also: Eco! These three wines (there’s also a rosé and a Sauvignon Blanc) are made using certified organic grapes and they are certified vegan.

The “Les Terroirs” Rouge uses grapes from eight winegrowers across 50 hectares in the Blayais, Eastern Gironde, and Premières Côtes de Bordeaux areas. It’s based on Merlot (82%), with smaller fractions of Cabernet Sauvignon (16%), and Malbec (2%).

Before we get into tasting it, let me point out one more cool factoid about my bottle of “Les Terroirs.” In the upper left corner of the label (above the red butterflies), you just might see the faint traces of an “R” and an underline in silver ink.

Now, it rubbed off while we were getting the bottle open and so you will just have to take my word for it. But that signature belongs to Pierre, great-grandson of Baron Phillipe de Rothschild. He was in town a few weeks ago and autographed some bottles for the good folks at Corner Wines in Plano, Texas. (That is where I am at the moment, drinking this new-era Bordeaux with a bowl of truffle tots.)

It pours up a dark purple with ultra-ripe blackberry, black cherry, black plum and earth on the nose. There’s some grilled beef (iron and smoke) and the sweet-bitter smell of dark-roasted coffee grounds. The palate is just a little lighter, with blackcurrant, brewed black tea, and cooked red plums. Medium-plus acid, medium body (feels much thinner than its flavors suggest), high alcohol, and a short tannic aftertaste. The overall impression is of a wine that’s very young and rustic–almost unfinished.

I peek at the spec sheet later and confirm that this red blend is matured entirely in vats. Unoaked, really? That’s a bold stylistic choice–but here it seems to deprive the wine of dimension and continuity. The fullness of the fruit against the harshness of the tannins is jarring. Oak on Bordeaux is like clothing on an attractive stranger: Hopefully, it’s not the first thing you notice. But if it’s not there at all, it seems a bit weird, doesn’t it?

I admit I feel ambivalence about the Bordeaux modernity campaign, and some of that probably has carried over to tasting this “Les Terroirs” Rouge. It’s organic grapes, that’s cool. It’s fruit-forward, also cool. It’s personally signed by a scion of the Rothschild family, which is definitely pretty cool. But it’s not a wine for me.

I know that Bordeaux is at a crossroads and feels a need to make urgent changes in order to survive. And yet, I can’t imagine who this wine is for. It’s too heavy and dry to appeal to a new wine drinker. But it doesn’t have the elegance or complexity that Bordeaux lovers are addicted to. (And which can already be found at a modest cost if you look beyond the tip-top producers.) This wine is not something I’d likely return to, on price or on taste.

Then there’s the packaging. Here’s one millennial’s opinion, for what it’s worth: I actually like it when there’s a castle on the label.

A line drawing of a Château doesn’t say “overpriced” or “stodgy” to me. It says, here’s a wine in a style you know and love, with hundreds of years of history behind it, grown with pride on a single estate. The Châteaux are gorgeous–their wines are timeless.

I can’t solve Bordeaux’s troubles, but dinner on this particular evening was a problem I could solve. Even an unremarkable Bordeaux makes for an excellent food wine.

The youthful fruit and tannic grip of “Les Terroirs” were a fine match with fried potatoes, aromatic truffle oil, and tangy creme fraiche. For dessert (and after I was good and Bordeaux’d), Corner Wines’s somm Craig blinded me on a couple of goofy bottles, an Albariño from Uruguay and an aged Pinot Noir from Switzerland.

Bottle: Mouton Cadet “Les Terroirs” Bordeaux Rouge (2023) – France

Variety: Merlot (82%), Cabernet Sauvignon (16%), and Malbec (2%)

ABV: 14%

Suggested retail: $22

My rating: 7.1 (out of 10)

Further reading:

PR Newswire: Bordeaux Wines Launches Second Year of Dynamic Global Campaign, #JointheBordeauxCrew

Pour yourself a Merlot and join in! Or, see past #MerlotThursday reviews here.

Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.