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New Mouton label unveiled
January 6, 2004
 Oliver Styles
The Bordeaux first-growth Chateau Mouton-Rothschild has revealed the design of its new label for the 2001 vintage.
American theatrical artist Robert Wilson was asked to create the label (pictured) which features a dyptich-style douple print of baroness Philippine de Rothschild, the owner of the estate in Pauillac, Médoc.
According to a press release, Wilson chose to set the baroness 'in a symphony of colours in which the green vine shoots and the gold of the sun harmonise with the chromatic scale of the wine, from light red to deep purple.'
The baroness wanted an American artist for the 2001 label in order to express her solidarity with the American people after the terrorist attacks on the New York World Trade Center on 9/11. Bob Wilson is also a long-standing friend of Philippine de Rothschild who was an actress of some renown in France, having played in the well-known French theatre company, the Comédie Française.
The tradition of having a different artist design the Mouton label each year began in 1945 with the iconic 1945 V for Victory bottle designed by Philippe Jullian. Since then artists including Cocteau ('47), Braque ('55), Dali ('58), Moore ('64), Miro ('69), Chagall ('70), Kandinsky ('71), Picasso ('73), Warhol ('75), Bacon ('90) and Balthus ('93) have all added to the Chateau's label collection.
There have only been two exceptions since 1945. The 1953 label celebrates the centenary of Mouton Rothschild and in 1977 the label featured a tribute to the late British Queen Mother who 'honoured' the Medoc and Bordeaux with her presence in April of that year.
The 1924 Mouton label of the first entirely Chateau-bottled vintage and the first drawn by an outside artist was created by art deco poster designer Jean Carlu on the request of the baron Philippe de Rothschild, a young playboy in the early twenties, he would become the force behind the Mouton Rothschild wines and father of Philippine de Rothschild.
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