Château Mouton-Rothschild: The Rothschilds
Isaac Thuret sold the Mouton estate at a loss, taking just 1.125 million francs from its new owner, a member of the Rothschild banking family. Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild was another absentee proprietor who, despite this disadvantage, soon began to turn things around at Mouton. He regained much of the ground that had been lost under Thuret’s watch, and the employment of Théodore Galos as estate manager was perhaps instrumental in this success. Much of his attention was directed at the vines, which were over-run with mildew and oidium. The quality of the harvested fruit started to rise, and the wines followed suit; almost immediately prices rose to closely match those of the other first growths.
Things were clearly looking up at Brane-Mouton, which underwent something of a name-metamorphosis to match this change in ownership, first to Brane-Mouton de Rothschild, and then to the now familiar Mouton-Rothschild. Names are relatively easy to change though, whereas rankings in published classifications are not. As I have already mentioned the vineyards of Bordeaux were classified in 1855; the classification was drawn up by members of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III (1808 – 1873), ready for the Exposition Universelle de Paris.
