In 1924, Baron Philippe de Rothschild decided to start bottling his wine at the château, a rare feat in those days when most properties had their wine bottled at the wine merchant they worked with. To mark the occasion, he commissioned a special label with cubist and surrealist influences designed by Jean Carlu. This attempt was too avant-garde for the era, and he had to wait until 1945 for things to change.
A tradition dating back to 1945
This tradition started in 1945 when Philippe Jullian painted an image for the chateau’s label. Other artists have since had the chance to add their work to these prestigious bottles. Notably, there was Jean Cocteau in 1947, Salvador Dalí in 1958, César in 1967, Jean Miro in 1969, Pablo Picasso in 1973, Andy Warhol in 1975, Pierre Soulages in 1976 and more recently Gu Gan in 1996, Niki de Saint Phalle in 1997, and even Jeff Koons in 2010. The crème de la crème of the art world has lent their work to each new vintage produced by the château since 1945. Historically, in exchange for using their paintings, the artists receive five cases of the vintage they illustrated and five cases of a vintage of their choice from the cellars of this Premier Grand Cru Classé.
The 2023 vintage has been revealed!
For the label of its 2023 vintage, Château Mouton Rothschild turned to Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, who created Paraíso, a colourful and symbolic piece.
Centred around a stylised bunch of grapes, the artwork illustrates the essential elements to create a fine wine: nourishing soil, water, sunlight and the freshness found during the night. The human influence, discrete but fondamental, appears as three triangles. Each element fits together like a puzzle, highlighting the balance between nature, terroir and knowledge. Staying true to her vibrant universe, Vasconcelos has crafted a label that celebrates the creation of wine.
A few of the great labels from the 20th century
1945: V de la Victoire placed on the label by Philippe Jullian
1947: The label is designed by Jean Cocteau
1955: Braque’s drinking pleasure
1958: Salvador Dali and the transgression of all artistic boundaries
1967: César proposes his “Mixed Work”
1969: The wittiness of Miro
1970: Chagall’s watercolour touch
And many others: Kandinsky, Picasso, Paul Delvaux, Francis Bacon, Niki de Saint Phalle, the list goes on!
Since 1981, this collection of artwork has been brought together to create the exhibition “Mouton Rothschild – Paintings for Labels” which was displayed in many museums around the world and now resides at the Château Mouton Rothschild itself.
A look back to recent labels
2022 by Gérard Garouste
The 2022 label plays homage to Baron Philippe, who took over the property in 1922. In his autobiography Vivre la Vigne published in 1981, he wondered whether the 100th anniversary of his arrival at the château would be marked and so it has.
The spectacular 2022 vintage (with an average rating of 98/100) is adorned with a label painted by the French artist Gérard Garouste. It features a portrait of the Baron and a ram, which was his emblem, either side of the château’s pediment. To create the artwork, the painter spoke to Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild (co-owner who oversees artistic and cultural projects at the château) about his grandfather’s life. “Baron Philippe was a man of great elegance, very hard-working, and he had the look of someone very sure of himself, with a mischievous side. That is what I have tried to capture in the way I have portrayed him,” explained Gérard Garouste.
2021 by Chiharu Shiota
The 2021 bottle of the Pauillac premier grand cru classé has been adorned with a label designed by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. The Universe of Mouton work of art was revealed at the start of December while the wine finishes maturing, ready to be released onto the market in 2024.
The 2021 label depicts a human silhouette connected to four lines leading to a suspended mass. It looks almost like the figure is holding on to balloons that have amassed to look like a bunch of grapes.
The lines “represent the four seasons and all the emotions linked to them, solitude, hope and accomplishment. It is like preserving the memory of the year in the wine. … Winter brings solitude and sadness, but the grains of hope are planted in spring and flourish in summer, while autumn reveals the results,” explained the artist.
2020 by Peter Doig
The artist who worked with the Rothschild family to create the label for the 2020 vintage is Peter Doig, a Scottish painter who splits his time between London and Trinidad.
This work of art blends the influences of Cézanne and Van Gogh in the artist’s take on the birth of a top wine, guided by the rhythm of a guitar. Evoking the feeling of being in a dreamworld, the painting pays homage to those who work in the vineyards, essential players in the creation of Mouton-Rothschild wines.
“The painting shows something of what goes on behind the scenes in the production of wine, what happens offstage, as it were. It’s a sort of ode to workers, to all those involved at the various stages of making a wine before it’s finally bottled. It’s a dream with a romantic streak, as if someone spontaneously decided to sing in the vines. It’s a moment of poetry, where you can take your time. It’s neither really day nor really night, but rather something in between, between waking and sleeping. It is possible to see it as a progression, a dream journey in the world of the harvest.” explains Peter Doig.
2019 by Olafur Eliasson
Solar Iris of Mouton is the name given to the contemporary artwork that features so prominently on the 2019 vintage bottle from Château Mouton Rothschild. The piece is an ode to the sun and its principal role in the crafting of wine, from the growing and ripening of the grapes to the natural flow of the changing seasons. The design is strikingly sliced horizontally, evoking the horizon with golden day on one side and deep blue night on the other. Linking the two is a series of ellipses that trace the earth’s journey around the sun, with a bull’s eye at the centre to evoke the singularity of the Château itself.
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, the younger son of Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, was moved by the work of Olafur Eliasson when visiting his 2016 exhibition in Versailles, putting Eliasson immediately in mind for a future label project for the left-bank château. ‘His art goes straight to what’s fundamental. The piece for Mouton Rothschild is no exception, with time, the turning seasons, and the sun right in the middle, presented as a kind of diagram.’ An interview with Eliasson details how the artwork represents ‘the cartography of all the sunrises and sunsets across a whole year at Château Mouton Rothschild. Every hour of the day and night sustaining the vine’s life cycle features in the piece.’
2018 by Xu Bing
Chinese culture takes centre stage in the design of the 2018 label. The owners of the château, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild, and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, chose to collaborate with Chinese artist and writer Xu Bing. Born in the mid 50s, Bing went on to complete a degree in printing at Pekin’s Central Academy of Fine Art, and he very quickly saw himself drawn to the craft of calligraphy. Choosing the visual art of letters as his main creative path, Bing’s work has been exhibited at globally-renowned institutions such as MOMA, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C.
Working at the expressive intersection of language and visual art, Bing’s pieces bring out the complexities and depth of lettering in an almost playful way. At first glance, the label design resembles classic Chinese characters with their swooping brushstrokes and intricate lines. And yet, upon taking a closer look, it is revealed that these are in fact Latin letters spelling the name of the Château. There is a poetic richness to this ‘square-word calligraphy’; it pulls us in with its enchanting craftsmanship then makes us think twice.
2017 by Annette Messager
For their 2017 vintage, Mouton Rothschild had the chance to work with renowned French artist whose work has seen great success across the world. As both a painter and sculptor, Annette Messager has mastered a wealth of art forms, and finds herself drawn to a variety of subject matter. She takes much of her inspiration from language and the everyday, creating from this pieces that are at once multimedia and multifaceted. Whether treating perturbing or playful themes, serious or light-hearted subjects, all of her work has a distinctly feminist flavour – this is the lens through which she observes the world before representing it in her art.
Entitled ‘Hallelujah’, it’s the Bible which has its place at the heart of this work. The wave of red writing formed of this devotional proclamation is the poetic element that carries us away from the visual towards the contemplation of other senses – the musical quality of incantation, the deep aromas of the precious bottle, and eventually the rich taste of the scintillating wine it contains. The power of evocation held by this image, small but mighty, is striking. And the rapport between this label and the famous wine it seeks to illustrate? It’s the virtues of wine and milk, their praises sung so highly in the Holy Book, that led the artist to create this expressive artwork.
As for the 2017 vintage itself, this is a year that brought into being some rich and colourful wines with strong tannic structure. Despite the hot weather conditions experienced during the harvest, these wines offer a notable freshness. Notes of blackcurrant bud and dried flowers are expressed in perfect harmony. ‘The complete and balanced finish confirms this to be a promising wine!’
