Winemaker Notes
About the Label Artwork
Balthus is the pseudonym of Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola (1908-2001). Born in Paris into a family of Polish descent, he came to the attention of the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke when he was only 13 years old, and throughout his life he was to enjoy the friendship and admiration of some of the most discriminating creative minds of his day: Antonin Artaud, René Char, Giacometti, Fellini, Albert Camus, all of whom acknowledged the immense power of his work, his intelligence and personality. His career as a painter, too, was blessed by places of outstanding beauty: the wildest part of the Morvan region where he lived from 1954 to 1961; Italy which he had discovered when he was 17, and to which he returned as Director of the Villa Medici in Rome from 1961 until 1976; and finally the Alps, answering his need for solitude and grandeur. Today, at the height of his fame, he has chosen to spend the rest of his life in Switzerland, married to the painter Setsuko.
Portraits, landscapes, city streets or interiors, Balthus's work is classical in its measure and its subject matter, its mastery and its composition, echoing both the Italian Quattrocento, Courbet and Cézanne. But the sense of tradition is illuminated and transfigurated by an instinctive feeling for the secret life of people and of things, by a sorcery that fixes silhouettes on canvas in a single moment of eternity, by the bewildering sweetness of his pastel colours and by the cat-like sexuality of the female form, in which, as Verlaine put it “l’Indécis au Précis se joint" ("The indefinable and the precise are one").
The drawing he made for Mouton Rothschild 1993 returns to a recurrent motive in this work: the dreamy adolescent girl, wilful, graceful and fragile... All the hypnotic power of a style that is both limpid and full of mystery, leading us away to distant lands of fantasy and desire.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Mouton's great winemaking comes to the fore in this wine in the face of the difficult year of 1993. It's a surprisingly substantial Bordeaux for such a wet growing season, even now displaying strong blackberries and mint flavors. Full-bodied with tannins that are just coming around.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
After less than persuasive performances in two potentially great years, 1989 and 1990, Mouton-Rothschild appears to have settled down, producing fine efforts in recent vintages, culminating with the enormously promising, unquestionably profound 1995. The 1993 is a beautifully made wine which could be considered a sleeper of the vintage. The wine boasts a dark purple color, followed by a sweet, pain grillee, roasted nut, and cassis-scented bouquet that is just beginning to open. In the mouth, the wine may not possess the body and volume of a vintage such as 1990 or 1989, but there is more richness of fruit, a sweet, ripe, pureness to the wine, as well as medium body and outstanding balance.
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Wine Spectator
Mouton comes through again. Impressive '93, deep in color and full-bodied, boasting plenty of currant, black cherry, mint and toast character. Well crafted, showing depth for this vintage.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.