by Gelasio Gaetani d’Aragona and Alessio Leonardi
No one would have thought that a purchase at auction could lead to one of the most famous and important Chateau in the world, not even its buyer.
It was exactly 1853 when Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild won the Château Brane Mouton, to make wine and enjoy the grapes of those vineyards together with his guests. The Chateau Mouton Rothschild was born from the fusion of the two surnames.
The Chateau experienced a revolution half a century later, in 1924, when the Baron’s nephew, Philippe de Rothschild, took over the reins of the company and decided to have all the wine produced bottled. On that occasion, he decided to commission the most important poster designer and advertiser, Jean Carlu, to design the label for his bottles. From that moment on, they will become one of the driving forces behind the beauty and collecting charm of this legendary wine.
The end of the Second World War is celebrated with a label designed by the artist Philippe Jullian that shows the V of victory of the allies on the high end. In 1945, the tradition of illustrated labels began. Real works of art involving artists such as Picasso, Chagall, Mirò, Braque, Tàpies, Francis Bacon, Dali, Balthus, Jeff Koons, and even Prince Charles of England who created a watercolour for the occasion.
Mouton, despite being considered an exceptional wine, remained outside the famous classification of Bordeaux wines, at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III, until 1973, when the Ministry of Agriculture intervened directly promoting it to the higher rank of Premier Grand Cru Classé.
It thus had finally officially entered the Olympus of the most important wines in the world, where it had always belonged. A nectar of the gods, absolute excellence in a glass following the philosophy of the Chateau “Mouton ne change”, because it is impossible to change what is already an incomparable archetype.