Everything related to the name of the Rothschilds is marked VIP, “extra”, “elite” and the like. The noble alcoholic beverages produced in the chateau Mouton Rothschild – one of the five great Bordeaux chateaus – is also no exception.
Bordeaux Chateau Mouton Rothschild became famous not only for its bouquet, but also for its stickers on glass containers. For more than seven decades, they have been decorated by no means with drawings by ordinary illustrators, but with works by the greatest contemporary artists.
History Wine labels from great artists
This story began in 1922, when the winery of a famous family was headed by Philippe de Rothschild – the first of his kind, truly passionate about the secrets of making wine.
For two years, the young baron, like other wine producers, sold his noble drinks to merchants who bottled them and provided them with their own labels. After that, the bottles were already sent to the hands of merchants. But in 1924, the baron decided to change the usual course of things.
The Rothschild household began bottling its own wines and gluing its own labels. At the same time, the label has turned from an ordinary leaflet with information about the drink, the manufacturer and the seller into a kind of special sign of selectivity, an elite brand. In addition, the baron’s handwritten signature on it confirmed the highest category of wine. With this painting, Rothschild, as it were, was personally responsible for the quality of the drink.
First labels
The first Bordeaux labels from the Rothschild household were decorated with family symbols and a quiver with five arrows. The quiver denoted the founder of the dynasty, Anselm Meyer, and the arrows denoted his offspring, who glorified the family name all over the world.
In the year of the victory over Nazi Germany, the state of affairs in the world changed, and with it the label on Rothschild wines changed. The family also suffered from the yoke – Baron Philip’s wife died in a concentration camp, and this happened literally on the eve of the end of the war. To cope with grief, as well as somehow mark the end of a terrible period, it was decided to change the label.
The wine of 1945, through the efforts of the young artist Philippe Giulian, already has on the sticker the Latin V, the first letter in the word “victory”.
And so a tradition was born that continues to this day. Every year, a famous artist is involved in the design of the label of one of the great (Grands Vins de Bordeaux) world wines – Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
Among the authors of illustrations noted
Andy Warhol
Salvador Dali,
Rufino Tamayo and others.
The 2012 vintage label was commissioned by the famous Spaniard Miguel Barceló, commissioned by Philippa Rothschild. And 2014 – the great Briton David Hockney (David Hockney), an old friend of the baroness who had died by that time. By the way, he was not the first subject of the Foggy Albion, who designed the wines of the Rothschilds.
Before him, in 1990, the label was drawn by Francis Bacon. In 2006, it was Lucian Freud (Lucian Michael Freud). And in 2004 – a member of the royal family, Charles, Prince of Wales, whose watercolors with pine trees so pleased the Baroness de Rothschild that she invited a representative of the august family to draw an illustration for vintage.
Of particular note is the sticker, decorated with a reproduction of Picasso in 1973.
It was in this year that the farm received the title of “Grand Cru”. At the same time, humanity lost the genius of Picasso – the artist passed away. The result was a memorial wine, the value of which for collectors is simply impossible to calculate.
The Rothschilds, always able to see benefits in non-obvious things, managed to create an unprecedented art object and extract very, very serious profits from it. The project continues to this day, and a collection of wine artifacts can be seen in the wine museum, open to tourists on the territory of Château Mouton Rothschild.
