The Bordeaux Classification originally only featured four wines as ‘First Growth wines’. The rigid classification’s only significant concession was made to our next wine, the Château Mouton-Rothschild.
Chateau Mouton-Rothschild
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CHATEAU MOUTON-ROTHSCHILD |
| Area: 203 acres Region: Medoc (Paulliac)
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COMPOSITION |
| Cabernet Sauvignon (75-90%) Merlot (10-15%) Cabernet Franc (0-5%) Petit Verdot (0-5%)
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ADDITIONAL INFO |
| Aged for up to 22 months 25,000 cases produced per vintage |
Based purely on the fine wine investment market of the time, the 1855 classification always should have classified the Château Mouton-Rothschild among the highest echelons of Bordeaux wine: it was selling consistently at prices equal to even the Lafite, which was top of the list. It seems likely that its exclusion (though it was a second growth) was purely political. The 1855 Classification was drawn up to showcase French power under the reign of Emperor Napoleon (the wines were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle, the second ever world exposition). With the Rothschilds acquiring the Mouton Château in 1853, an endorsement of British power at the height of the Industrial Revolution was obviously undesirable.
The fact that such an influential family were interested in investing in wine through the Mouton estate is a testament to its performance in the middle of the 19th Century. The British connection to Bordeaux wine clearly goes beyond the Rothschilds, and it is known that the estate was once a possession of the Duke of Gloucester during the One Hundred Year’s War. After the English withdrew from France, a succession of families owned the estate, including the Prince of Wines Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Ségur.
However, it wasn’t until after the Marquis’ ownership that the estate grew a substantial number of vines. The new owners, the de Brane family are credited with improving growing practices and refining the later processing of the wine, making it a competitor with top tier fine wines that it would have never have previously been considered alongside. Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild purchased the estate it wasn’t just competitive, it saw some spectacular Bordeaux vintages for decades following the 1855 classification.
Château Mouton-Rothschild was only declared a ‘First Growth’ in 1973 (and then only after the intense, decades-long lobbying of Baron Phillipe de Rothschild). The Baron was a hugely influential person in French life: a banker, screenwriter, playwright, producer poet and early Grand Prix driver. His status as an important French cultural figure certainly helped counteract the prejudices that had motivated the Mouton’s omission from its rightful place.
And for Trivia’s sake, it’s worth noting that future French President Jacques Chirac was agricultural minister and responsible for the elevation of the Chateau to First Growth status.
The First Growth Wines Series
Part One: Château Lafite-Rothschild
Part Two: Château Latour
Part Three: Château Margaux
Part Four: Château Haut-Brion
Part Five: Château Mouton-Rothschild
