Ideas we Love Issue no. 6
Chateau Mouton-Rothschild's "Paintings for the labels"
Matt first encountered this week’s idea during his annual ski-trip with some mates to St. Anton in Austria.
Much has changed around the place, but one of the favourite spots that hasn’t in the twenty or so years Matt has been going there is ‘The Hospiz Alm’ in St. Christoph.
It used to be a barn but was turned into a restaurant when skiing started to become a thing last century. It flexes traditional, affordable, Tirolian food with a wine-list that the waiting staff claim is from the most valuable wine-cellar in Europe.
You can swing by the cellar on the way to the toilets, accessed either via a load of steep stairs in your ski-boots (not ideal) or by taking a slide that’s carved into the structure of the building itself…
…It’s here he encountered this week’s idea, an idea called “Paintings for the Labels”, which is a long-running initiative by wine producer Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (abbreviated from now on to CMR for sake of fingers, thumbs and spell-checks)
So what’s it all about, where and when did it start?
In 1924, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, took the radical decision at the time to go D2C. He began bottling his grape harvest on site, rather than sending it in barrels to the local Bordeaux merchants for maturing, bottling and marketing.
To kickstart this idea he asked the young poster designer Jean Carlu to create a unique label that would become the wine’s visual trademark. Carlu responded with a fittingly modern illustration for the times featuring a dynamic, Cubist ram and a quiver of arrows — part of the Rothschild family’s insignia.
In Art Deco font, the words ‘Ce vin a été mis en bouteille au château’ indicated that the wine had been made and bottled by the Rothschild’s at Chateau Mouton. A move which no doubt helped CMR’s bottles stand-out versus the typical fonts and illustrations you’d see on bottles at the time.
Twenty years later at the end of the Second World War, CMR decided to turn what had been a one-off idea into a tradition, with each new vintage being labelled with a new artwork from a new artist. Since then the likes of Braque, Miro, Picasso, Warhol, Haring & Hockney have all graced the Chateau’s produce.
The label for the 2021 vintage was unveiled last month and features the work of Japanese master Chiaru Shiota.
Whilst on a trip to the U.S, one of the Rothschild family saw that wealthy collectors of their wines had started enlarging the bottles' labels and were displaying them as pieces of art in their houses. This led to the idea to organize, starting in 1981, fully-fledged exhibitions of the wine labels with a permanent exhibition at the Chateau then established in 2013 - thus evolving the platform from packaging-led, to create an experience-led layer to it too.
Considering the gallery is probably the only one in the world to own originals from Picasso to the Prince of Wales, this is an idea which both shapes the culture of the category it’s entering and is reflective of cultural trends.
Why we love this idea
Now, we can’t claim to be within CMR’s target market (at least until you start paying for this content), but even to the outsider there is a lot to admire about an idea that, in retrospect, turned out to be so ahead of it’s time.
#1 A cultural platform with product and packaging at its heart
So much work these days that’s trying to penetrate popular culture has only a tenuous link to the product with some talent rented in to gain attention. This is a platform that puts the product and its packaging right at its heart, using it as a media channel in it’s own right.
Flexing its most distinctive asset, the label, in ways that keep the vineyard on the tip of people’s tongues and tethered to their bank accounts year after year to continue their collection.
#2 Collaborating in culture way before collaborations were a thing
The original label and those that followed, were some of the earliest examples of artists being commissioned to work with commercial businesses. Long before the emergence of “drop culture” and the frequent brand Collaborations from the likes of Supreme, LVMH, Palace and Nike that fill our newsfeeds.
Initially, like any challenger idea, this would have provided the bottles with stand-out. But more significantly, over time, this would enable CMR to broaden their appeal beyond wine-buffs and start to penetrate the art world too. The labels working to attract collectors from the distinct but complimentary sources of “high net worth individuals” and build their revenue, reputation and resale values in the process.
This partnership pays for the artists too. Both in terms of their reputation, but also in the receipt of a case of the wine bearing their work as payment.
The gift from Baron Philippe is truly one that keeps on giving.
#3 Bottling scarcity, rarity and storytelling by design
Wine is a funny old business. Especially at the high end where alongside fine whiskey it is in a class of “not so fast moving” consumer goods. The more bottles get drunk from a particularly good vintage, the more valuable the finite supply or remaining becomes.
With this platform, you don’t just have bottles and their consumption raising prices, but also the popularity (and inevitable death) of the artists who you’ve worked with too.
The biggest “flex” amongst collectors is a feat known as “completing the vintage vertical”: Owning one bottle of every label ever produced. With collectors building special humidified glass cases to present them in all their glory.
The popularity of the labels results in auction prices for older and more collectible years being far out of sync with the same vintages produced by other prestigious vineyards, vineyards whose labels do not change from year to year.
#4 It’s a brilliant example of a long idea
The average tenure of a marketing director is less than three years. This idea is about to get 100 candles on its next birthday cake and a letter from the King.
The credibility that comes from scouting and working with the world’s most renowned artists every year, across decades, puts CMR in a company that very few other brands can keep - with a brand-building idea that doesn’t just add to the bottom line, but to the balance sheet as well.
What we’d love to do with it
A category where people are ready and willing to drop anything from $1K to $300K on a bottle of red is one with a very specific set of requirements.
It's got to taste good and signal good taste for those that order it. It's got to make money work harder than it otherwise might for those who choose to own it.
Therefore, any plays you might make with an idea like this need to be carefully considered to not “over-expose” a product, something that might risk reducing rather than increasing residual value.
So, what would we do with it…
#1 Fables behind the labels
An obvious place to start, but 100 years of collaboration with some of the most creative visionaries on the planet, will no doubt have created some pretty interesting stories, anecdotes and lessons learned that can further build on the legend of the series.
The Chateau have published books, but what other forms might those stories take?
A Netflix documentary to broaden awareness and appeal, could be right, or could potentially over-expose the series. Therefore, what about a gallery tour that takes the magic of the exhibition “out of Pauillac” in the off-season and takes it on-tour across the cultural and commercial capitals of the markets the chateau wishes to penetrate. A fine wining and dining experience that creates an all-new and novel “Night at the Museum” alongside each “drop” of a new vintage.
#2 Pairing Masters with Mavericks
As much as there is to admire about this idea, it’s clearly lacking diversity. The labels are made by artists who’ve already made it, to attract Ultra-High-Net-Worths who’ve clearly made it too, or inherited it. A potentially bigger legacy could be created by putting a ladder down for the next generation.
By all means continue to commission the masters, but why not pair them with up and coming mavericks who can benefit from the experience and exposure.
The master might produce for the vintage, the maverick for another variety or release.
To create a longer tease and tail for each drop, competitions could be opened up to find the next-generations rising stars and bursaries could be offered to turn their potential into a viable career path.
Inevitably some of those mavericks will go mainstream, thus creating an even bigger legacy for the vineyard in helping to break new talent of tomorrow, not just commissioning the stars of today.
#3 Club Mouton
Recent research from Bain suggests that the top 2% of luxury brands buyer bases contribute up to 40% of sales; other passion brands in these circles have long cultivated communities of owners to bond people to the brand and other like-minded people at the same time.
Routes in here could be a members club/evening in Paris, re-vamped in the aesthetic of each vintage that only “owners” can visit – with some suitably exclusive experiences and incentives to want to get involved. Could it be spin-offs of “living-art” exhibitions like Van Gogh’s where owners get to dive into re-representations of their label?
We’re sure some of this stuff might exist, we’re just not loaded enough to know about it. But we like the fact this sort of thinking transposes the idea from a label and exhibit, to an ongoing experience and lifestyle that only ownership affords you access to.
Sounds pretty tasty right?
If you like this, you’ll love this….
You can see the influence of this idea in loads of places - both inside the ‘booze’ category, but elsewhere too.
From one long idea to another…
Hat-tip to the long-running Google Doodle, where Google have been changing their search engine logo every now and again for over two decades to honour special occasions and special people.
**FYI anyone from creative agencies Google won’t let you take over the Doodle believe us we’ve asked**
From Wine-labels to Record-labels…
Never ever forget Mick Jagger’s letter to Andy Warhol to help out with the cover for a new album. “Take little notice of Al!”
From Wine-bottles to Beer-bottles…
A shout-out to Beck’s own Art Label Series from the early 00s that helped make for some lovely 6 sheets from what I can remember
From Packaging to Promotion…
Absolut Vodka owed much of its rise to prominence to its distinctive ads and activations from the 80s and 90s that were either directed by or inspired by its ongoing links to the art world.
Read all about it here
From Pauillac to the Pope …
An even earlier collaboration with artists saw Pope Sixtus enlist Michaelangelo to help spruce up the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with a mural that’s stayed up for roughly 13,000 outdoor posting cycles.
A vintage idea, if ever there was one
It felt only appropriate to finish Dry January with an idea that sat within this space.
All this talk of wine has made us thirsty : )
Until next time, Cheerio.
Matt & Tom