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rothschild pauillac mouton

Among the top Bordeaux chateaux, Mouton Rothschild has a unique tradition.  Every year, it releases a newly commissioned artwork as its label for the vintage.  Part of this traces to the love of art by the owners of this prestigious property, part of it is attributed to the idea of starting afresh each year with a blank slate (see bottle image without the artwork and the newly released label for the 2018 vintage).

The owners of Château Mouton Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, gave the commission to the renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing.  He pioneered his own style of calligraphy be presenting symbols and images in the traditional Chinese characters, also called "square word" by Chinese.

The label artwork of the 2018 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild is titled "Mouton Rothschild".  How original, one might ask.  The artwork illustrates “Mouton Rothschild” in Xu’s signature “Square Word Calligraphy,” which resembles traditional Chinese characters but is actually composed of the letters of the Latin alphabet.  Were you able to tell when you first saw it?