Speculation that the 2008 Mouton label will be designed by a Chinese artist has overshadowed the announcement of the artist for the 2007.
The French sculptor and graphic artist Bernar Venet has produced the label for the 2007 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
Venet, best known for his monumental steel structures, was commissioned by Mouton’s owner, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild.
The chateau described Venet’s image as suggesting ‘the swell of a barrel while the arcs evoke chalices rooted in the earth and open, like vinestocks, to the precious gifts above.’
Venet, 68, succeeds Lucien Freud, whose image of a questing yellow zebra and pot plant adorned the 2006 label. As is the custom, he will paid in kind with cases of wine from the vintage.
But the announcement of the 2007 artists label has been overshadowed by speculation as to who will provide the image for the 2008 Mouton.
In September last year, the as yet un-bottled Mouton 2008 rose from £1850 a case up to £2,200 on the back of rumours that the wine’s label would be painted by a leading Chinese artist – in order to boost sales in the region.
Speculation was so rife that the 2008 Mouton was the most traded wine on the Liv-ex Index.
Mouton managing director Herve Berland told Decanter that no decision had been made on the 2008 label and that, in any case, there would be no announcement until the end of this year at the earliest.
The Mouton Rothschild Artists label series was begun in 1945. Artists such as Picasso, Braque, Dali, Miro, Chagall, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and Prince Charles have all contributed illustrations.
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Written by John Stimpfig
