Gérard Garouste revealed as creator of the label for Château Mouton Rothschild’s 2022 vintage

Until 11 December 2024, Christie’s is offering a unique, single-lot auction: six bottles, three magnums, one double-magnum, one imperial and the only nebuchadnezzar available to date from the 2022 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild, featuring a label designed by the French artist Gérard Garouste. The winning bidder and three guests will be invited to Château Mouton Rothschild for a tour followed by a tasting of wines from the estate, in addition to the Artist Reveal dinner for the 2023 vintage, which will be held at the estate in late 2025. Also included is an invitation to attend one of the events in the SailGP international sailing competition in a VIP box with three guests of their choice.

Born in 1946, Gérard Garouste studied in Gustave Singier’s studio at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris from 1965 to 1972. In 1977 he put on a show at the Paris nightclub Le Palace called Le Classique et l’Indien, of which he was the author, director and stage designer. The first exhibition of his paintings at the Durand-Dessert gallery in 1980 marked the beginning of national, then international recognition.

Represented by the American art dealer Leo Castelli in the 1980s, he has shown his work all over the world and been the subject of a number of retrospectives, from the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 1989 to the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2022.

Garouste takes a keen interest in the roots of Western culture, the legacy of the Old Masters and the myths that are the springboard for his work. His paintings teem with sometimes fantastical animals and distorted human figures, drawing on sources that range from the Old Testament to popular culture and literary greats such as Cervantes and Rabelais.

The most recent of many collaborations between the vineyard and artists — a tradition that stretches back to 1924 — Garouste’s label for the 2022 vintage, Hommage au Baron Philippe (‘Tribute to Baron Philippe’), commemorates the centenary of Baron Philippe de Rothschild being entrusted with the running of his family’s wine estate in Médoc at the age of 20.

‘Baron Philippe was a man of great elegance, very hard-working, and he had the look of someone very sure of himself, with a mischievous side,’ says Garouste. ‘That is what I have tried to capture in the way I have portrayed him.’

When he took charge of the business, Baron Philippe made the radical decision to begin bottling his entire harvest on site, rather than sending it in barrels to the local Bordeaux merchants for maturing, bottling and marketing. To celebrate the move, he asked the young poster designer Jean Carlu to create a unique label that would become the wine’s visual trademark.

Carlu responded with a fittingly modern illustration. It featured a dynamic Cubist ram and a quiver of arrows — part of the Rothschild family’s insignia. Below, in a striking Art Deco font, were the words ‘Ce vin a été mis en bouteille au château’, indicating that the wine had been made and bottled by the producer.

This pioneering label is one of the earliest examples of an artist being commissioned to work with a prestigious company.

At the end of the Second World War, Baron Philippe decided to turn what had been a one-off idea into a tradition. He commissioned the artist Philippe Jullian to illustrate a label that commemorated not only his return to the château — he had escaped to England during the war — but the return of peace across Europe. Jullian’s design featured the ‘V’ for victory that had been popularised by Churchill, accompanied by the year and the words ‘année de la victoire’.

Ever since then, each vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild has been labelled with a new artwork, many of them by some of the 20th century’s greatest names. The roll call of artists the estate has worked with includes Georges Braque (1955), Salvador Dalí (1958), Joan Miró (1969), Pablo Picasso (1973), Andy Warhol (1975), Keith Haring (1988), Francis Bacon (1990) and David Hockney (2014). In 2004, even King Charles — then Prince of Wales — agreed to offer an artwork for the label, underlining the commission’s prestige.

‘Mouton Rothschild is one of just five first-growth wines from Bordeaux, and is famous the world over,’ says Tim Triptree MW, international director of Wines and Spirits at Christie’s in London. ‘When a great vintage and a great label collide, it’s hugely collectable. Recent examples that spring to mind are the 2009 and 2010 vintages, with labels by Anish Kapoor and Jeff Koons respectively. Farther back, the 1945 vintage is regarded as one of the best ever.’

According to Triptree, however, the ultimate prize among collectors is a complete ‘vertical’ — featuring a bottle from every vintage of the last century. ‘Someone I know in London built a huge wooden and glass display cabinet to show off theirs,’ says the specialist. ‘I’ve known others to frame prints of their favourite labels and hang them on their walls.’

Today, the job of commissioning a new label for each vintage falls to Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, the grandson of Baron Philippe, who together with his siblings Camille Sereys de Rothschild and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild now co-owns the estate.

A trained art historian and former Old Masters dealer, Julien de Beaumarchais often begins planning commissions years in advance. He says that the artists are chosen first and foremost because he likes their work. Once his choice has been agreed with the family, the artist is invited to pay a secret visit to the vineyard to learn more about the terroir and its traditions. They’re also given an opportunity to view the château’s Paintings for the Labels exhibition — first curated by Julien de Beaumarchais’s mother, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, in 1981 — which displays the original artwork for every label.

Every artist is given free rein to create what they wish, although, according to the château, themes of ‘the vine, the wine and the ram have proved a particularly rich source of inspiration’.

Indeed, the ram and the vine both appear in Gérard Garouste’s label design. ‘I find it fascinating that Baron Philippe chose the ram’s head as a symbol, as it features in both Greek and biblical mythology,’ he says. ‘I also included the fruit of the vine, and all the symbolism of a wonderful wine that was his life’s work.’

Last year’s label, by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, was unveiled at a ceremonial dinner in Médoc, where it was also revealed that — following protocol — Shiota didn’t receive a fee for her work. The artists are not paid but are given bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild as a token of gratitude, including some of ‘their’ vintage, of course.

The subsequent auction of a 12-bottle ‘horizontal’ included a one-off nebuchadnezzar and a double-magnum signed by Shiota. The online sale held by Christie’s raised €237,500, with proceeds going to Association Antoine Alléno.

The 2022 vintage is generally acknowledged to be an outstanding one in Bordeaux, and the lot offered at Christie’s will feature the only nebuchadnezzar available to date, while the double-magnum’s label will be signed by the artist and the owners of the château. This year’s sale will benefit Sauveteurs en Mer — SNSM, the French sea rescuers, with the proceeds from the auction being used to provide essential communications equipment for its new sea-going vessel based at Port Médoc on the Atlantic coast.

‘This initiative between Château Mouton Rothschild and contemporary artists was initially well ahead of its time,’ says Triptree. ‘It has since become a hallmark of the wine’s importance and quality, and the release of each new vintage is always a moment of great excitement among collectors.’

As well as receiving the 12-bottle lot of Château Mouton Rothschild 2022, the winning bidder and three guests will be invited to attend the Artist Reveal dinner for the Château Mouton Rothschild 2023 vintage, which will be held at the estate in late 2025. They will also be given a private tour of Château Mouton Rothschild, followed by a tasting of wines from the estate. In addition, the winning bidder will have the opportunity to attend one of the events in the famous SailGP international sailing competition, in a VIP box with three guests of their choice