Château Mouton Rothschild has stood in Pauillac since Nathaniel de Rothschild bought the estate in 1853. Baron Philippe de Rothschild took charge in 1922, aged twenty, and changed Bordeaux twice over: he imposed château bottling in 1924, and spent fifty years campaigning for the estate’s reclassification.

He won in 1973 — the only change ever made to the 1855 classification, promoting Mouton from second to first growth. The motto changed with it: Premier je suis, second je fus, Mouton ne change.

Since 1945, every vintage has carried a label commissioned from a different artist — Picasso, Bacon, Warhol, Freud, Koons. Part of why Mouton is collected as much as it is drunk.

2010 is the other great vintage of the pair — and where 2009 seduced, 2010 built. A dry, cool-nighted season produced smaller berries, higher tannin and higher acidity: wines of enormous structure that demand patience and repay it. The label is by Jeff Koons.

Blackcurrant and pencil lead over cedar and dried herbs; powerful and tightly wound on the palate, the tannic frame still firm, the length immense. This is the classicist’s Mouton — give it until the late 2020s at the earliest.

Supplied in original wooden case, six bottles.