Mouton Rothschild’s 100th Anniversary Sotheby’s Auction Includes Warhol Magnums and a Barrel of the 2025

Four magnums, four labels: Warhol, Steinberg, Haring and Hockney. And yes, you’re allowed to open them.

Photo Credit: Sothebys

Collecting a Warhol is one thing. Opening one over dinner is quite another. At Château Mouton Rothschild, those worlds have shared a bottle for decades—and an upcoming Sotheby’s auction is giving collectors a particularly compelling reason to make room in the cellar.

Taking place in London on February 4, 2027, Château Mouton Rothschild: Paintings for the Labels — 100th Anniversary Commemorative Release will bring together historic wines pulled directly from the estate’s cellars, previously unreleased large formats, artist-signed bottles, and a barrel of the 2025 vintage. With a combined estimate of $2.5 million to $4.2 million, the sale celebrates the century separating Jean Carlu’s inaugural 1924 artist label and the 2024 vintage, whose artwork will be unveiled on December 1, 2026.

Photo Credit: Alain Benoit (Deepix)

For collectors whose interests extend from Bordeaux to Basel, consider this a meeting of the minds.

The story began when Baron Philippe de Rothschild commissioned Carlu to design a label for the 1924 vintage, marking his decision to bottle the entire vintage at the château. The annual artistic tradition took shape later, following Philippe Jullian’s “V” for Victory design for the 1945 vintage. In the years that followed, Mouton’s labels became a remarkably small canvas for some remarkably big names: Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and, more recently, artists including Anish Kapoor and Peter Doig.

That history supplies some of the auction’s most intriguing lots. Collections organized around artistic movements will bring together wines bearing labels by Surrealists, Modernists, and Pop Art figures. One Pop Art offering comprises four magnums featuring work by Warhol, Saul Steinberg, Keith Haring, and David Hockney. Elsewhere, a collection of 77 bottles and one magnum spanning selected vintages from 1924 to 2024 carries an estimate of $200,000 to $400,000—a century of wine and label history in one very ambitious acquisition.

Photo Credit: puxanphoto

For those who prefer to plan their drinking well in advance, the barrel of Mouton Rothschild 2025 offers the equivalent of 300 bottles, with an estimate of $100,000 to $200,000. The successful bidder can choose from a range of bottle formats and personalize them with bespoke strip labels, with delivery beginning in 2028. Dinner-party provisions, sorted.

Other highlights require considerably less patience. The estate’s celebrated 1945 vintage is estimated at $24,000 to $32,000 for a bottle and $51,000 to $67,000 for a magnum. Special assortments will also honor Baron Philippe and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, whose stewardship helped turn the label commissions into one of wine’s most recognizable artistic traditions. Today, her children—Camille Sereys de Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild—continue that legacy, with artist selection remaining a family decision.

Photo Credit: Pierre Grenet Astoria studio

There is a philanthropic element, too. A group of large-format bottles signed especially for the occasion by participating label artists, alongside signatures from the family’s sixth generation, will direct 50 percent of its proceeds to Médecins Sans Frontières. Selected additional lots will support the Picasso Museum in Paris, the Soulages Museum in Rodez, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the Palace of Versailles.

And because a collection like this deserves a proper toast, select lots will include an invitation to a Centenary Celebration Gala Dinner at Château Mouton Rothschild on June 12, 2027. Further “surprise” lots will be announced ahead of the auction.

The only remaining question: which acquisitions belong on display, and which deserve a corkscrew?

Photo Credit: Gabriel Guibert

Read More

For the family’s own take on the label tradition, read Haute Living’s cover story with Philippe Sereys de Rothschild on the driving force behind Château Mouton Rothschild.