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Château Mouton Rothschild unveils its label for the 2022 vintage
Château Mouton Rothschild has unveiled its label for the 2022 vintage – a tribute to Baron Philippe from the French artist Gérard Garouste.
In his autobiography, Vivre La Vigne, published in 1981, Baron Philippe de Rothschild speculated as to whether anyone would think to celebrate the centenary of his arrival at Château Mouton Rothschild in 1922. It turns out that did – the newly unveiled label for the 2022 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild, by the French artist Gérard Garouste, is the tribute that Baron Philippe had himself anticipated.
To celebrate the anniversary of a founding moment in its history, Gérard Garouste has created a label in the form of an heraldic banner for Mouton Rothschild, its front wall framed by a portrait of Baron Philippe alongside a ram, his well-known emblem and a vine as “symbolism of a wonderful wine that was his life’s work”, Garouste said.
As the artist explains, it was his discussions with Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild that inspired him. “I wanted to know more about his grandfather’s amazing life. He showed me lots of photos, and the man’s physical presence really spoke to me as a painter. It was clear that I had my model. I was greatly attracted by his character, not least because elegance is something I set great store by. 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.”
After playing with various ideas in his sketchbooks, the work – simply entitled Hommage au Baron Philippe [a tribute to Baron Philippe] – took shape as a gouache (an opaque watercolour).
“I find it fascinating that Baron Philippe chose the ram’s head as a symbol, as it features in both Greek and biblical mythology,” Garouste added, saying he included the fruit of the vine to symbolise the wines and his life’s work. “I wanted to pay tribute to that story, to his respect for wine, which is also a tribute to nature as it is given to us.”
Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild – the co-owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, who is responsible for the estate’s artistic and cultural activity and relations with artists – said the work created in tribute to his grandfather could be “read like a kind of heraldic banner: it needs to be deciphered.”
He noted that “it all starts with an encounter: that of Baron Philippe with the front wall, which has always been a singular feature of Mouton Rothschild.”
“From that encounter sprang a symbol which expresses and transcends them both: the ram, the dual embodiment of Baron Philippe, whose astrological sign was Aries, and of Mouton Rothschild, reflecting both its name and its vital energy. For me the label tells the story of a metamorphosis.”
Online auction to raise funds for the French sea rescue service
As the artwork was unveiled, it was also revealed that Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA and Christie’s are organising an online auction of an exclusive lot for the benefit of Sauveteurs en Mer (SNSM), a non-profit association whose mission is to rescue anyone in danger at sea or on the coast, in metropolitan France and in French overseas departments and territories (the French equivalent to the RNLI).
This is to honour Baron Philippe’s legacy as an accomplished sailor – he was a member of the French sailing team at the 1928 Olympic Games and won the French Regatta Cup in 1937.
The proceeds from the sale will be used to provide the new seagoing vessel at the Port-Médoc station (where the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde estuary meet) with communication equipment.
The lot itself comprises an exceptional assortment of various formats of Château Mouton Rothschild 2022: six bottles, three magnums, a double magnum whose label will be signed by the artist and the members of the family, an imperial and the only Nebuchadnezzar available to date, together with two exclusive experiences. The successful bidder and three guests will be invited to the unveiling of the label for Château Mouton Rothschild 2023, which will be held at the estate in late 2025 and attended by the family and the artist chosen to illustrate the label for that vintage. They will also be given a private tour of Château Mouton Rothschild, followed by a tasting of wines from the estate.
In addition, the buyer will have the opportunity to attend one of the events in the famous SailGP international sailing competition, in a VIP box with three guests of their choice. The auction of this exceptional lot closes on 11 December 2024.
The artist
Born in 1946, Gérard Garouste has displayed his distinctive work all over the world, notably in the US, Japan, Germany, Latin America and Italy. He has received many public commissions, including from the Elysée Palace, Évry Cathedral, Namur Royal Theatre, Mons City Hall, Notre-Dame de Talant and the Châtelet Theatre in Paris, who commissioned him to create the stage curtain. His art also features in leading public collections including the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Georges Pompidou and the City of Paris Modern Art Museum in France and the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation in Vienna, and he has been the subject of retrospectives at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1989), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1989), the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation in Vienna (1992), the Villa Medicis in Rome (2009), the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (2015), the Fine Arts Museum in Mons (2016) and the National Museum of Modern Art.
In 2017, Garouste was elected to the Paris Academy of Fine Arts, succeeding Georges Mathieu, and two years later was elevated to the rank of Commander of the National Order of Merit.
He currently splits his time between Normandy and Paris.
The wine itself
Château Mouton Rothschild’s 2022 vintage was released en primeur in June 2023 at an ex-négociant price, in bond, of €516 per bottle, up 21.9% on the 2021 release. It is currently available from a range of UK brokers and merchants at around £520 in bond per bottle. It received a rating of 98-100 from Lisa Perroti-Brown, 98-99 from James Suckling, 96-99 from William Kelley, 96-98 from Neal Martin and 98 from both Jane Anson and Georgina Hindle. In my own en primeur report I referred to it as a candidate for the left-bank wine of the vintage, describing it as bright, vivid, energetic and dynamic yet at the same time impressively restrained and elegant. I will re-taste the wine in the coming week. But, in the mean time, my full en primeur note appears below.
Mouton Rothschild 2022 (Pauillac; 92% Cabernet Sauvignon; 8% Merlot; pH 3.89; 14% alcohol; 49% grand vin; tasted at Mouton with Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy). The highest proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon in the final blend other than the 2010. Incredible. Magisterial. Almost pure Cabernet and defined of course by that. Fabulous. Succulent, refined, but with incredible finesse, guile and subtlety. Complete. Cassis and cassis leaf, black cherry, bramble, mulberry and damson. A little chocolate, very dark. So dense and compact yet this has an incredibly ample frame too. Dark cherry and stone fruit at first, then ripples of freshness breaking up the surface of the dark mirror-pool as if charged by cool undercurrents from the depths. And what depths! A wine of such gravitas. This is so thoroughly Mouton but with so much vivid energy and yet restraint. Infinite on the finish. Texturally so complex and yet so complete. So staggeringly fresh and vivid. 98-100.
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