Bordeaux reds are back

After lots of change, growers around the region hope that you can taste the excitement of red wine again

Stocked amongst the dizzying array of wines made by producers around the world, Mouton Cadet can be easy to overlook. While this unassuming red wine from Bordeaux has been readily available at Canadian shops since the 1950s, its chief winemaker Jérôme Aguirre thinks it’s ripe for rediscovery.

For wine lovers of a certain age, mention of Mouton Cadet might be tinged with nostalgia of a drink that helped introduce them to a world of wine. Younger consumers may have never given it or other basic styles of Bordeaux – without fashionable chateau names or popular appellations such as Pauillac or Margaux on the label – much thought.

“We want Mouton Cadet to be a charming wine,” says Aguirre, who has worked in Bordeaux since 2004 and took charge of the Mouton Cadet range in March, 2022. “So, you’ll see we have made a red wine with a sunny expression that’s generous and fruity in style.”

The 2020 vintage marks Mouton Cadet’s 90th anniversary. One of the earliest global wine brands, Mouton Cadet was launched in 1930 as a red wine made from components that weren’t suitable for Château Mouton-Rothschild. The chateau’s owner, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, saw an opportunity to bring a quality wine from Bordeaux to a wider audience. The bistros of Paris quickly embraced Mouton Cadet and its distribution expanded as production increased.

Sales records at the winery trace imports to Quebec back to 1953. Canada continues to be one of the most important export markets out of the 150 countries where Mouton Cadet is sold.

Mouton Cadet added a white wine in the early 1970s and expanded the range again in the 1990s to include a rosé as well as a range of smaller production reserve labels, including red wines from Saint-Emilion and Margaux and a sweet white from Sauternes. Annual production is reported to be nine million bottles of red wine, two million of white and one million of rosé.

Working from the 16-hectare (40-acre) site in Pauillac where the Mouton Cadet Winery is located, Aguirre explains he has strengthened the company’s relationship with 200 growers spread across the region. “We don’t buy bulk wine,” he says. “We work directly with farmers, and we have all of the diversity of Bordeaux available.”

For the Mouton Cadet red blend, Aguirre says he likes to combine merlot from vines growing in clay soils with merlot from vineyards with limestonebased soils to balance fruit flavours with freshness. It’s a way of building complexity and character in the wines.

Most vineyards are in the Côtes de Bordeaux and Bordeaux appellations with much of the sauvignon blanc and sémillon grapes for white wine production coming from Entre-deux-Mers. There is a major push in Bordeaux to embrace more environmentally friendly farming methods, with a region-wide proposal to have all vineyards certified by some form of third-party accreditation (including certified organic and biodynamic authorities) by 2030.

The 2020 vintage of Mouton Cadet will start appearing on liquor store shelves in the coming weeks. It’s an enjoyable red wine, charming even, that shows the tremendous quality red wines from Bordeaux can deliver at every level of production. There’s been a sea-change since affordable red wines from Bordeaux often spelled thin, tart and nasty flavours. Aguirre and a network of growers around the region hope you can taste the excitement again.