Since 1945, Château Mouton Rothschild has given the label of its grand vin to a different artist each year and paid them in cases of wine rather than money. I wrote about four of those labels as each one was released, and this page brings them together in order.
2007: Bernar Venet
The first time the label carried a sculpture, one of Venet’s steel arcs, more serious in tone than the dancing sheep of earlier years and arriving just as the financial crisis began.
Read: Mouton Rothschild 2007 and Bernar Venet’s Sculpture Label
2010: Jeff Koons
Koons drew a small silver sailing boat and sun over a Pompeian fresco of Venus, which I read as a first growth showing a sense of humour.
Read: Luxury, Humour and Mouton Rothschild 2010
2014: David Hockney
Two glasses, one empty and one full, drawn in tribute to his friend Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, who died in the year the wine was made.
Read: Mouton Rothschild 2014 and David Hockney’s Label
2017: Annette Messager, Hallelujah
The word repeated in waves above a hand holding a glass, a celebration of milk and wine that appeared in the year of #MeToo.
Read: Mouton Rothschild 2017 and the Hallelujah Label
For a bottle from before the tradition began, The Hours Between Coffee and Wine describes opening a 1929 Mouton at Harry’s Bar.
