Several of my readers recently noted that during the many years I have been writing about wine, I have never devoted a word to Mouton-Cadet. On reflection, this lapse may be related to my hesitation to write about the wine I cannot help but think of as the bastard son of Baron Philippe de Rothschild.

In 1922, when Baron Philippe took over the operation of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, he set himself the task of transforming an good already excellent chateau into one of the very best in the world. In a sense, the wine of Chateau Mouton Rothschild was the Baron's first child, and by the late 1930's, the wines of Mouton Rothschild had been acknowledged as among the world's greatest. Along the way, the Baron fathered several other children. Remaining in Bordeaux, he fathered Chateau Clerc-Milon, the wines of which often attain excellence, and Chateau Armailhac, which makes wines good enough to have been referred to by English critic Oz Clarke as "a dress rehearsal for Mouton Rothschild".

Later, working together with Robert Mondavi, he fathered the Opus 1 winery in California's Napa Valley, and before his death in 1988 he laid the groundwork for the birth of a joint venture with Chilean winery Concha y Toro. The wines of Opus 1 are always extravagant, often excellent and invariably overpriced and advance tastings of wines soon to be released by the Chilean venture hint at wines that may be the best ever produced in South America. For the record, the Baron also had time to father Philippine, now the Baroness de Rothschild who since her father's death has continued to manage the family estates with both passion and intelligence.

During the early 1930s, perhaps more with an eye to profit than love, Baron Philippe also spawned Mouton-Cadet, and since its birth many have considered the red wine that carries this name to be the not very well respected bastard of the family. Unlike the great wines of Bordeaux, which rely on the highest quality grapes from specified vineyards, Mouton-Cadet (which also comes in white and rose versions) uses grapes that are harvested throughout the entire region of Bordeaux. Using the traditional Bordeaux formula, the red wine is made from a blend of three grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon , Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Because blending takes place in huge quantities, the winemakers have a high level of control over how the wine will taste and there is little difference between wines from different vintage years. The result is a medium bodied wine with smooth tannins, traditional blackcurrant and berry aromas and flavors and just a hint of sweetness.

The problem with all of this is that although red Mouton Cadet is always acceptable it is never sophisticated, exciting or special. Whatever one thinks of the wine, however, one has no choice but to acknowledge that despite (or perhaps in some perverse way, because of) its distance from greatness and its relatively high price wherever you find it, Mouton-Cadet is the world-wide best selling red wine of Bordeaux. If I had to give the wine a score it would be a modest 84.

© Daniel Rogov