Château Mouton Rothschild, located 50 km (30 mi) north-west of the city of Bordeaux, France in an area known as the Médoc, specifically the village of Pauillac. It is regarded as one of the world's greatest wines. Originally known as Chateau Brane-Mouton it was renamed by Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853 to Château Mouton Rothschild. It was the first estate to begin complete chateau bottling of the harvest.

Despite the market prices for their vineyard's wines equalling that of Château Lafite, Château Mouton Rothschild was excluded from First Great Growth status in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, an act that Baron Philippe de Rothschild referred to as "the monstrous injustice." In 1973, Mouton was elevated to "first growth" status, the only change in the original 1855 classification.

It has its vineyards on the slopes leading down to the Gironde Estuary, in the Bordeaux region, mainly producing grapes of the Cabernet Sauvignon variety. Today, Château Mouton Rothschild has 203 acres (0.8 km²) of grape vines made up of Cabernet Sauvignon (77%), Merlot (11%), Cabernet Franc (10%) and Petit Verdot (2%). Their wine is fermented in oak vats (they are one of the last chateaux in the Médoc to use them) and then matured in new oak casks. Mouton is known for the exotic, unusual character of their wines. It is also frequently confused with the widely distributed generic Bordeaux Mouton Cadet, even though the two differ in price by approximately an order of magnitude, and share little besides being Bordeaux produced by the same family.

Baron Philippe de Rothschild came up with the idea of having each year's label designed by a famous artist of the day. In 1946, this became a permanent and significant aspect of the Mouton image with labels created by some of the world's great painters and sculptors. The only exception to date is the unusual gold-enamel 2000 bottle.

To celebrate the hundredth birthday of the acquisition of Château Mouton, the portrait of Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild appeared on the 1953 label. In 1977, England's Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother visited the château and a special label was designed to commemorate the visit.

Twice in the history of their special labels, there have been two used for the same year. The first occurred in 1978 when Montreal artist Jean-Paul Riopelle submitted two designs. Baron Philippe de Rothschild liked them equally so he split the production run and used both designs. The 1993 Mouton label, a pencil drawing of a nude reclining nymphette by the French painter Balthus was rejected for use in the United States by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. As such, for the US market the label was made with a blank space where the image should have been and both versions are sought after by collectors. The popularity of the label images results in auction prices for older and more collectable years being far out of sync with the other first growths, whose labels do not change year to year.

In 1980, the vineyard officially announced their joint venture with Robert Mondavi to create Opus One Winery in Oakville, California. In 1997, Château Mouton Rothschild teamed up with Concha y Toro of Chile to produce a quality Cabernet Sauvignon-based red wine in a new winery built in Chile's Maipo Valley.

The operation is today run by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild. In June of 2003, the vineyard hosted La Fête de la Fleur at the end of Vinexpo to coincincide with their 150th anniversary.

Artists who have created a Château Mouton Rothschild label

• 1945: Philippe Jullian
• 1946: Jean Hugo
• 1947: Jean Cocteau
• 1948: Marie Laurencin
• 1949: André Dignimont
• 1950: Arnulf
• 1951: Marcel Vertès
• 1952: Léonor Fini
• 1953: Année du Centenaire
• 1954: Jean Carzou
• 1955: Georges Braque
• 1956: Pavel Techelitchew
• 1957: André Masson
• 1958: Salvador Dalí
• 1959: Richard Lippold
• 1960: Jacques Villon
• 1961: Georges Mathieu
• 1962: Matta
• 1963: Bernard Dufour
• 1964: Henry Moore
• 1965: Dorothea Tanning
• 1966: Pierre Alechinsky
• 1967: César
• 1968: Bona
• 1969: Joan Miró
• 1970: Marc Chagall
• 1971: Wassily Kandinsky
• 1972: Serge Poliakoff
• 1973: Pablo Picasso
• 1974: Robert Motherwell
• 1975: Andy Warhol
• 1976: Pierre Soulages
• 1977: "Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II"
• 1978: Jean-Paul Riopelle (2 labels)
• 1979: Hisao Domoto
• 1980: Hans Hartung
• 1981: Arman
• 1982: John Huston
• 1983: Saul Steinberg
• 1984: Agam
• 1985: Paul Delvaux
• 1986: Bernard Séjourné
• 1987: Hans Erni
• 1988: Keith Haring
• 1989: Georg Baselitz
• 1990: Francis Bacon
• 1991: Setsuko
• 1992: Per Kirkeby
• 1993: Balthus (2 labels)
• 1994: Karel Appel
• 1995: Antoni Tàpies
• 1996: Gu Gan
• 1997: Niki de Saint Phalle
• 1998: Rufino Tamayo
• 1999: Raymond Savignac
• 2000: "Special gold enamel relief of the Augsburg Ram" (Mouton)
• 2001: Robert Wilson
• 2002: (TBA in 2005)

External link

• Château Mouton Rothschild (http://www.bpdr.com/)
• Thumbnail images of all labels (http://www.finestwine.com/english/wine_collection_mouton_labels.asp)