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Bordeaux gold bottle trend gathers pace
Médoc estate Rollan de By has followed the lead of Mouton Rothschild and Angélus by launching a collection of five wines housed in gold-embossed bottles.
Named Collection Or, each of the five wines, blended by the World’s Best Sommelier 2007, Andreas Larsson, is packaged in its own gift box. The entire Collection Or is also available for purchase as a gift set.
Priced at €199 each, the five wines from the 2010 vintage of the Cru Bourgeois estate aim to show off the different terroirs of the northern Médoc.
Mouton Rothschild kicked off the gold bottle trend in Bordeaux
Rollan de By is a Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend while Tour Seran is comprised mainly of Cabernet Sauvignon, with Merlot and Cabernet Franc making up the remainder of the blend.
With the gold etched onto black glass, each of the five designs takes cues from the wine name – Tour Seran features a tower and La Rose de By a rose in full bloom.
The château hopes the bottles will become collectors’ items and launched the collection with Christmas gifting in mind.
Pauillac first growth Château Mouton Rothschild kicked off the trend back in 2002 with its gold-embossed black bottle featuring the estate’s signature ram. The bespoke bottle was created for the 2000 vintage of the estate’s grand vin.
St Emillion estate Château Angélus joined the black and gold party earlier this year with a limited edition gold-embossed bottle created to celebrate the estate’s elevation to Premier Grand Cru Classé “A” status.
Used to house the 2012 vintage of its grand vin, each of the bottles is embossed with 21.7-carat gold.
“We wanted to use the bell as the focal point and I chose a black bottle as it contrasts so well with the gold so the two jump off one another,” deputy managing director for the château Stephanie de Boüard told db at the time of the launch.
2010 Rollan de By being currently widely available for some 15 € this would price the empty bottle around…185 €, which is over 12 times the wines value! Angélus and Mouton-Rothschild did not add any premium for their packaging, and they make money out of their wines, not out of a packaging that emphasises the fact the wine itself has little if no interest.
It is absurd and looks like a ridiculous attempt to raise these mid-range wines to a level where they clearly do not belong. I wonder if many fellows will get fooled. Phew…
Cyrene I believe it says €199 for a gift box of all five bottles not €199 per bottle…
whether it is €199 for the set, it is still hideously expensive. €40 for a 2010!! Can’t see the point of this at all. While I don’t personally see the point of showing off your wine in a display cabinet, there is somewhat of a difference between Mouton 2000 and Rollan de By 2010. And really €30 for an empty bottle of an average Bordeaux. Disregarding the price, and looking just at the packaging – if I saw that and didn’t know about the wines, I would think it style over substance and wonder why they needed to do that to sell the wine and pass on to another wine that didn’t go into silly and expensive gimmicks.