Home
The Mouton Labels
By Pamela Meredith
Generally speaking, fine wine and contemporary art have much in common. Both exist in a seemingly rarefied world of experts and big bucks. Each has their own specialized language - think tannins and terroir or minimalism and metaphors - as well as legions of avid collectors, not to mention makers with their own individual styles. Both are sold at auction houses such as Christie's or Sotheby's for increasingly huge sums. And how many times have you heard: "I don't know much about wine/art, but I know what I like?"
The connections between wine and art are even tighter in the house of Mouton Rothschild, the venerable Bordeaux winemaker. Beginning in 1945, some of the world's finest artists have contributed drawings and paintings each year to adorn their labels. The original works have been touring the world in the exhibition "Mouton Rothschild, Paintings for the Labels," and a full-colour catalogue has recently been published to document the collection thus far. Other wineries have emulated the concept of artist-designed labels, but none with the same rigor and success.
I've always been a sucker for a beautiful wine label; indeed it often dictates my selection when stumped at the wine shop. And there are some incredible examples in this group. My personal favorites include those that really highlight the love affair between wine and art, while still remaining true to each artists' unique style. My number one label accompanies the 1990 vintage, a wine described as "opulent, plummy, almost evolving into a liqueur." Francis Bacon's painting depicts a whirling, distorted body holding out a full crimson wine-glass - both flesh and wine are celebrated simultaneously. Known as a lover of wine, Bacon's work is hallucinatory and weird but wonderfully exultant and daring.
There are very few unsuccessful labels in the group. It is difficult to choose, but the rest of my Top Ten includes:
1955 (deep, rich, liquorice and cinnamon flavours…sticks to the teeth in toffee-like splendour), label by George Braque. I prefer Braque's label to that of his Cubist co-originator Pablo Picasso (1973, an important vintage). Where Picasso's watercolour and ink depicts a frenzied Baccanalian dance, Braque dashes off an elegant still life of grapes alongside a goblet. Its simplicity is surprising and powerful. Incidentally, it is Braque's label that captured the attention of the international art world and persuaded other notable artists to contribute their work to a wine bottle.
1964 (the taste is sweet and soft with melting tannins), label by Henry Moore. An artist whose large sculptures we Torontonians have the opportunity to see regularly, his work is known for its abstraction of the human figure, usually the female form. In his label, three golden chalices are cradled in cupped hands, evoking some primeval ritual; each pair of hands is unique and evocative, each chalice is glowing and inviting.
1969 (faint, delicate nose, but a really sour taste that was unavoidable this year), label by Joan Miró. Miró's work is easily distinguished by its organic object-signs such as snakes and insects, often in bright red, yellow, blue and black. These colours work particularly well on the label, the composition is dominated by a large red grape and surrounded by various stars, parasites and marks in blue and yellow, which happen to be the Rothschild racing colours.
1970 (soft and fruity), label by Marc Chagall. This label is pretty as only Chagall's work can be, with its trademark dreamy figures and animals floating in a wash of gorgeous colour and whimsy. A mother feeds grapes to her child while a thrush plucks the fruit from a vine in this charming narrative that foregrounds simple pleasures and innocence.
1975 (mint and cedarwood on the nose, lots of attack…a rustic robustness), label by Andy Warhol. The late Baron Philippe de Rothschild gets the Warhol treatment in a pair of portraits adorning this label. The Baron looks thoughtful in one, haughty in another but distinguished and powerful in both. Warhol, known for his silkscreens of consumer labels like the Campbell's Soup can and Coke bottle, not to mention his portraits of luminaries, here combines these two concerns. Warhol defied the instruction to make his images horizontal to fit on the label, and thus the Baron is represented as if lying on his side. It's cheeky, but it works.
1988 (an absolute classic, cedary nose…emphatic and cigary), label by Keith Haring. Haring's fluid, stylized line captures the double ram from the Rothschild's coat of arms, their dancing legs reminiscent of the energetic cartoon-y figures he is known for.
1989 (concentrated, exotic and very chocolatey…one of the best, and most seductive 89s in Bordeaux), label by Georg Baselitz. The rams make an appearance for the second year in a row, but with Baselitz's signature twist - they are upside down. Painting like this since 1969, Baselitz proposed this fresh way of looking at the world, and uses the device to make subject matter uniquely his own. Adding an historical layer to the label are the words "Over there is now over here" - in recognition of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
1993 (lovely, pretty scent, very floral…blackberries are the predominant fruit), label by Balthus. During the early years of the labels, Baron Rothschild refined the concept and set out some guidelines for the artists specifying that the inspiration for the artwork had to come from one of three themes: the vine and the vineyard, the pleasures of wine drinking, or the ram. The Baron passed away in 1988 and his daughter, Baroness Phillippine took over the commissioning process. Her choices are decidedly more daring, including this label by Balthus which has very little to do with grapes and wine and everything to do with Balthus' predilection for young girls. The pencil drawing of a nude, reclining pre-teen, though beautiful, proved unacceptable to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the U.S. The only way the 1993 vintage could be sold there was with a blank label. While all of the artist-designed labels are collector's items, the rare blank 1993 label is particularly coveted.
1997 (soft, warm, plummy nose…lovely plums and cassis taste…very alluring), label by Niki de Saint Phalle. We couldn't have this list consisting solely of male artists, now could we? There are only a small handful of labels by women to choose from, but this one is fascinating, graphic and humorous. Many of her well-known emblems are here including the snake, the sun, the lips and the curvy female form, along with the wine bottle and glass. The combination is fanciful, bold and speaks to the pleasures of the table.
How were all of these renowned artists compensated for their artwork? With wine, of course - four cases of two different vintages, including the year of their contribution - a win-win arrangement, to be sure. As Baroness Philippine said recently: "The wine is art. I lived with a father who said making wine is art. There is no dichotomy. Wine is art and art is wine."
Tasting notes by Serena Sutcliffe in Mouton Rothschild: Paintings for the Labels. Published by Sotheby's, New York, 2007.
Comments