The most celebrated art "museum" in wine is the Château Mouton-Rothschild label collection, and with the unveiling of the 2015, it's a gallery that now holds some 70 works. It also has a new curator: Following the 2014 death of Bordeaux legend Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, youngest son Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild has guided the artist selections. 2015 marks the first full vintage of a new generation at the Bordeaux first-growth, and for it, de Beaumarchais de Rothschild has tapped German artist Gerhard Richter.
"I was very impressed by the retrospective of Richter’s work at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2012 and had been dreaming ever since of getting him to illustrate a label for Mouton," de Beaumarchais de Rothschild told Unfiltered. "He is one of the most fascinating artists of our time, with a very strong personality and an extraordinary capacity for renewal, so that he is always equal to himself yet always different. We are very honored that he accepted our commission. From a more family-oriented standpoint, I am happy to see a German artist inaugurate the post-Philippine era at Mouton Rothschild: For our family, it is a return to our origins, which also marks a new beginning."
Careful observers will also note a new signature on the label: the scrawl of Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, the eldest son of Baroness Philippine, now chairman of the company and co-owner with his two siblings. "It feels like continuity and that's the essential thing," Sereys de Rothschild told Unfiltered. "It's important that Mouton keeps going forward. It's been very successful over many years and there's no reason why our generation can't be as successful."
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