Château Mouton Rothschild reveals label for the 2023 vintage

For the first time in Château Mouton Rothschild’s history, a Portuguese artist, Joana Vasconcelos, has created the artwork for the famous Pauillac estate, which was unveiled yesterday.

Vasconcelos is the latest addition to a long list of contemporary artists who have illustrated the prestigious chateau’ label, which has previously included French artist Gérard Garouste (2022 vintage), Japan’s  Chiharu Shiota (2021) and names such as Picasso, Dalí, Warhol, Bacon and Hockney.

Her drawing, ‘Paraíso’ (meaning Paradise) is representative of her bright, colourful and joyful installations, combined with her skills in graphic art, to illustrates all the elements that come together to create a great wine. Centred on a cluster of

Each element  – earth, water, the sun’s rays and cool nights, and hands (represented by the apex of a triangle) has its own shape and colour “and plays a complementary and decisive role, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle”, the estate said. “The vine is the centre of human attention and thrives in the paradise that is the Château Mouton Rothschild terroir, whose soil, sun and water have nourished grapes from time immemorial”.

Vasconcelos said that her inspiration for the label came from the grapes and vines and the naturalistic aspect of the Château Mouton. “Paraíso” (Paradise) is a work inspired by the idea of perfection, of luxury, and the coherence between nature and man,” she said, adding that she felt very privileged and honoured “to be a part not only of a great name, but also of the ensemble of great artists that have participated in previous editions of this project.”

Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, co-owner of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, has followed the artist’s work for many years, being particularly impressed by her large-scale exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in 2012 – the first woman and the youngest artist to exhibit their work there, which became the most visited exhibition in France in 50 years. In 2018 she became the first Portuguese artist to have an individual exhibition in the Guggenheim Bilbao and has also exhibited at the Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palace in Florence, as well as at the Liria Palace in Madrid.

In 2023, her 12-metre tall art installation/sculpture/architectural garden folly, The Wedding Cake, was unveiled at Waddesdon Manor, commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation.

Château Mouton Rothschild said they were “beguiled” by the spectacular creations that have made her famous, seeing common ground between the way Vasconcelos works with and assembles different raw materials and the making of a fine wine.

As de Rothschild noted, “Vasconcelos uses every day, traditional materials like embroidery or crochet to create artworks that explore contemporary issues such as feminism in a monumental, baroque, occasionally provocative, humorous and engaged way. She grounds Portugal’s craft heritage in modernity. I really like that link between art and craft because it’s what we have here at Château Mouton Rothschild, the result of high-level craftsmanship and at the same time a work of art, because each vintage is unique, rare and hence precious.”

The wine itself

Château Mouton Rothschild’s 2022 vintage was released en primeur in June 2023 at an ex-négociant price, in bond, of €324 per bottle, down 37.2% on the 2022 release. It is currently available from a range of UK brokers and merchants at around £300 in bond per bottle. It received a rating of 98-100 from Jane Anson, 98-99 from James Suckling, 96-98 from Neal Martin and 94-96 from William Kelley. In my own en primeur report I referred to it as a candidate for the left-bank wine of the vintage, describing it as soft, gracious and dynamic in its freshness.

I will re-taste the wine in the coming week, but in the meantime, the full en primeur tasting note is as follows:

Château Mouton Rothschild 2023 (Pauillac; 93% Cabernet Sauvignon; 7% Merlot; 13.3% alcohol; pH 3.79; the old-vine yields here were above the 10 year average for Mouton; tasted with Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy at Clerc-Milon). A candidate for left-bank wine of the vintage. Very floral. Crushed rose petals, fresh rose petals, rose water and iris. Black cherries and brambles, damson too. Black pepper. Candlewax and candle smoke from the cathedral hinting perhaps at the gothic cathedral architecture of the palate to come. Walnut and olive oil. Chiselled. Incredible texturally. Broader than Le Petit Mouton but with something of the same kaleidoscope of velvety layers imparting a great sensation of depth. But this is deceptive as it’s so glacial, glassy and mirror pool. I love, too, the hint of blackcurrant that appears like a phantom from the lake just before the finish. A wine with a staggeringly dynamic freshness, almost a whirlpool of upwelling Cabernet cassis disrupting the cool tranquillity of the surface that we encounter first. So soft and gracious. Beautifully composed. And yet thrilling and utterly captivating at the same time. 97-99.

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