The Château Mouton Rothschild winery in Bordeaux has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the best in the world. Their success has been achieved through effort, talent and a great deal of tenacity.
Chateau Mouton Rothschild Winery.
The winery is located in Pauillac, in the Medoc region of France, northwest of Bordeaux, where the firm creates its legendary and famous namesake wine, whose expensive vintages are sold—in many cases—even before they are bottled.
Their quality lives up to Bordeaux’s reputation, an area that produces some of the world’s finest wines, which exemplify the perfect communion between work and knowledge with the advantage of an exceptional terroir that produces superb vines.
The history of Château Mouton Rothschild began in 1853, when Nathaniel de Rothschild, a member of the English branch of a noble European family, bought a farm that had been producing wines since 1234.
1. The Chateau
2, 3. Interior views of the Chateau
4. The great barrel room.
For many years, and despite the fact that the quality of its wines was increasingly recognized, the estate fail to arouse interest among its different owners, to the point that the winery suffered neglect over a long period. But in 1922, the Baron Philippe de Rothschild—just 20 years old at the time—took control of the winery’s destiny.
Philippe de Rothschild, a legendary banker, Grand Prix race driver, and artist, was a visionary man who immediately realized that the future of Château Mouton Rothschild was in bottled wine, something not very common at the time, when the product was usually sold in bulk.
Starting in 1934, he started to number the bottles, and from 1945 to this day the labels of the Château Mouton Rothschild wine have been designed by great artists such as Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, among others.
The Baron died in 1988 and his only daughter, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild took over the company, sharing responsibilities with her three children Camille, Philippe, and Julien, until her death, which happened last year.
Currently Château Mouton Rothschild is synonymous with fine wines, including its superb flagship, the legendary and highly valued Château Mouton Rothschild, a creation that has been produced since the 1930`s with grapes from Premier Cru vineyards of the varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
An elegant wine that clearly displays the art of coupage—blending—with a dense and opaque color, almost black, and refined and complex aromas of fruits such as black currants, blackberries, and cherries, with hints of coffee, cedar, spices, leather and flowers. In the palate, it reveals rich flavors of ripe fruit with hints of chocolate and vanilla. It is a wine of unequaled perfection for its body and finish, a jewel of winemaking that all enthusiast enologists should try.
The Château Mouton Rothschild is an international symbol of quality that has crossed borders to become one of the most appreciated and coveted French wines in the world. ■
