Mouton-Rothschild 1945, the wine to end all wars
Master of Wine David Peppercorn tells the story of a remarkable vintage in the history of this famous Grand Cru wine; borne from the chaos of post-occupation France, 1945 not only set a precedent for the wine's quality but saw the establishment of a tradition followed by Mouton-Rothschild to this day
When La Baronne Philippine de Rothschild served 1945 Mouton-Rothschild to more than 200 guests at the Syndicat des Crus Classés Dinner on 21 June 1993, the idea was to pour magnums. But when the maître de chai opened a magnum for inspection, it was decided that the wine in this format was not yet ready and bottles were served instead. Such is the stuff of legends!
One should not, however, go away with the idea that ’45 Mouton is an undrinkable monster. My note made at the dinner speaks of a tremendous bouquet of cassis and a flavour showing great concentration and depth of fruit and tannins, allied to intensity of expression and sweet fruit. The wine was in superb condition and gave great pleasure. Several years earlier in London, I had noted that the wine looked more like a ’61 and that it outshone both Lafite and Latour.
But let us go back to the beginning. 1945 was a special year in many ways, both historic and vinous. And the label of the ’45 tells the story immediately, with its ‘V’ for victory. During the war Chåteau Mouton had been occupied, with the arrival of the German army in the spring of 1940 following the French Armistice. Being Jewish property it was confiscated, and the château itself became a billet for German officers. As things became more difficult, they auctioned off most of the furniture. After the Germans withdrew in 1944, the Resistance occupied the château, tearing up the floorboards for firewood. This was the Mouton to which Baron Philippe de Rothschild finally returned in 1945.
The war divided Baron Philippe’s life in two, as far as Mouton was concerned. From the moment of his arrival in October 1922 until the fall of France in 1940, he achieved many important things: the building of the new chai – a monument to a new Bordeaux at the time, and still so today; the introduction of compulsory château bottling; and a new label carrying a changed image of Mouton, now very much Mouton Rothschild. But his life was still really based in Paris, and he was still something of a globe-trotting playboy.
1945 was a new and very different world. To start with, Baron Philippe was no longer a French citizen – the Nazis had robbed him of that status, just as they had all French Jews. Nor did he have any money with which to pay for the everyday expenses of the château. But undeterred he went through the usual bureaucracy to regain his French passport, and then obtained the necessary bank loans to carry on the business of running the château. When he came to taste the wartime vintages he was surprised to find that, although his signature had been removed from the labels, the name still appeared as Mouton Rothschild. Somehow, the Nazis had not objected to this Jewish name appearing on the label. Prior to the Baron Philippe era, the label had simply stated Mouton, with the Rothschild name only appearing as proprietors, in smaller letters than those of the gérant, or manager.
Just as the end of the war represented the opening of a new chapter right across Europe, so it signified a new dawn for Mouton. First, there was nature’s gift, in the shape of the vintage, then there was Baron Philippe’s desire to mark the new beginning in a decisive manner. Nature’s first gesture had not seemed so promising, since it came in the form of an unusually severe and late May frost. The result was a tiny crop. Only twice in the previous 50 years had there been a smaller yield. However, a fine summer followed, resulting in an early harvest. At Mouton, they started on 7 September – it wouldn't be until 1989 that such an early vintage would reoccur. It is also worth noting that there were only 50.73 hectares (ha) under vine, against 60ha in 1920 and 75ha today. During the war years the vines seem to have been well tended, but there was a shortage of labour and, of course, no fertilisers, although there would have been horse and cattle manure available.
Baron Philippe was particularly fortunate at this critical moment to have in place at Mouton a very able team, headed by Edouard Marjary as manager (today called technical director) and the remarkable Blondin family – Albert the father, and his sons Pierre and Raoul. The quality, brilliance and consistency of Mouton ’45 is certainly a tribute to this great team, especially bearing in mind what happened elsewhere, because although the vintage was one of enormous potential, it posed problems that the Bordeaux cuveries of this period were ill equipped to meet. Thus many wines of the vintage are today spoilt by volatile acidity, but not Mouton, where the fruit quality is still spectacular. Somehow they controlled the fermentation temperatures, and the wine we taste today is something of a miracle. One should also mention that anyone wishing to buy Mouton Rothschild today must be on their guard, since this is one of the most faked of the great wines, so ultra-vigilance about verifiable provenance is advised.
During the time the wine was in cask, Baron Philippe was planning to make his grand gesture towards the year with a special label. He considered several designers, but eventually settled on Philippe Julian, a young artist he had met in London during the war; his label, based on Churchill’s famous Victory ‘V’ sign, looks superb. Just as important, it began a new fashion at Mouton, to enlist an artist – sometimes famous, sometimes not – to design a new label every year. Today, they are collectors’ pieces. How fortunate that this vintage, from a historically great year, should have produced for Mouton not only one of their signature masterpieces, but also the first great label of many to come.
This article first appeared in The World of Fine Wine magazine.
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