De Rougement designs Mouton 2011 label

French painter and sculptor Guy de Rougemont has designed the 2011 label of Pauillac first growth Château Mouton Rothschild.

Guy de Rougemont. Credit: Philippe Pannetier

de Rougemont is the latest in a long line of artists to create an original work for the château, which has commissioned contemporary artists to design its labels since 1945.

Owner and long time art lover Baroness Philippine de Rothschild commissioned the 78-year-old artist to create the label.

A member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France, de Rougement is known for his use of bright colours, geometrical forms and undulating lines, referred to by the artist as “serpentine lines” used to emphasise or temper contrasts of light and shade.

His drawing for the 2011 Mouton label, featuring snake-like lines running the colour gamut from yellow, orange and red to blue and deep purple, was designed to reflect both “the clarity of vines in sunshine” and “the darkness of the cellars.”

In a statement released by the château, the 2011 vintage in Bordeaux is described as: “one of the hottest, sunniest and driest vintages of the last 40 years.”

The château describes the 2011 vintage as having an “intense purple” hue, an “elegant” nose offering “red fruit aromas and notes of spice” and a “smooth and powerful” palate with “vanilla and cocoa set off by some floral notes” held up by “velvet tannins.”

Among the other artists to have created a label for Mouton Rothschild are Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Georges Braque, Juan Miró, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.

Last year, American neo-pop artist Jeff Koons designed the 2010 label for the estate featuring a silver line drawing of a ship sailing under a bright sun over a Pompeii fresco of The Birth of Venus.

Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the five Bordeaux First Growths, comprises 84 hectares in Pauillac in the Médoc.