Château Mouton Rothschild Unveils Its 2019 Vintage With Artwork Created By Olafur Eliasson

Photo Credit: Alain Benoit – Deepix

Château Mouton Rothschild has unveiled its 2019 vintage, and it’s a doozy. As designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, the piece, dubbed “Solar Iris of Mouton,” celebrates the alliance of sun and wine. Eliasson sees the wine as a testimony, a fingerprint, of the soil in which the grapes grew and ripened, the year in which it was made, the influence of the sun that year and its cyclical relationship to its environment.

Photo Credit: Château Mouton Rothschild

Solar Iris of Mouton is divided into two horizontal strips: the upper part represents daytime with its golden hues, the lower part the night in midnight blue. They frame the oculus which represents Château Mouton Rothschild. Around it, a series of ellipses form a ring that charts the path of the sun in relation to the earth at the Château’s location in Pauillac. The lowest arc designates the shortest day of the year, the top arc the longest.

Photo Credit: Alain Benoît Deepix

In the upper part, elongated figure 8 shapes known as analemmas represent the position of the sun recorded from Château Mouton Rothschild at the same time on each day of the year. The variations in the sun’s position in the sky arise from the movements of the earth around the sun and along its axis. The motion of the earth and the passing of time thus become visible in the shape of the analemma. The figure 8 shape also evokes the symbol of infinity – a promise of eternity for Mouton Rothschild 2019?

Photo Credit: Château Mouton Rothschild 2019

Says Eliasson: “Solar Iris of Mouton is a map of all the sunsets and sunrises that take place over a year at Château Mouton Rothschild. Depicting each hour of daylight and night-time that go into the growing of the grapes, it is a kind of signature for the vineyard, telling us something about the conditions in which the wine grew and the intimate relationship between the wine and its location. Tasting the wine connects us to the local environment, to the soil, and to the particular weather, seasons, and lighting of the place. Visible through the eye-like oculus at the centre of the label, the wine contains the golden sun, the earth, and the sky; it is local and it simultaneously bears a trace of the celestial.”

Photo Credit: Brigitte Lacombe 2016© 2016 Olafur Eliasson

Art has always been central to the history of Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s family, and Château Mouton Rothschild has a long-standing and close link with leading contemporary artists. Each year since 1945 a leading artist has illustrated the Château Mouton Rothschild label, forming a collection that features the most famous names in contemporary art. The prestigious list includes some of the most celebrated figures of their day, such as Dalí, César, Miró, Chagall, Picasso and Warhol. Many of these distinguished artists spent time at Château Mouton Rothschild, where their original artworks are displayed in the Paintings for the Labels room.