Mouton Is Not “the Château of Sheep.” So Where Does Its Name Come From?

“Mouton” means sheep in French. The name therefore makes many people picture a sheep. Indeed, a golden ram’s head decorates the château’s entrance hall, and two rams appear on the Rothschild family coat of arms.

Yet when we trace the origin of the name, no sheep appears at all.

How a Place Named for a “Hill” Gradually Came to Look Like a “Sheep”

The land on which the château stands was once a parcel owned by the notary Jacques de Ségur and known as “Clos de Mouton.” The explanation generally accepted by specialists is that “Mouton” here is a place name derived from the Old French word motte, meaning a hill or rise in the land. In other words, the name described the physical form of Pauillac’s rolling terrain.

Why, then, did the image of a sheep become so widespread? One answer lies in the coat of arms. The two rams are said to be a later design inspired by the zodiac sign of Baron Philippe, who inherited the château in 1922: Aries. That is a separate story from the origin of the place name. A name for a hill passed through the coincidence of a zodiac sign and gradually became associated with sheep. This is the small misunderstanding hidden inside the name.

The Year of the “V,” Marked by the Memory of War

Baron Philippe became head of the estate in 1922 at the age of 20. In 1924, he introduced château bottling, a system under which the estate itself handled every stage from harvest through labeling and sale. That progress was forced to stop during the Second World War.

In 1940, when German forces entered Bordeaux, Mouton was requisitioned. Baron Philippe, who was Jewish, was stripped of his French nationality and detained under the Vichy regime. After his release, he went to Britain and joined General de Gaulle’s Free French Forces. His wife, Baroness Elisabeth, was arrested in 1941 and deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died in March 1945.

That same year, as the war ended, the château’s label carried the letter “V” and a laurel wreath. This became the starting point of the tradition of inviting a leading artist of the era to create the label each year. Since then, celebrated figures including Salvador Dalí (1958), Joan Miró (1969), Marc Chagall (1970), Pablo Picasso (1973, the year of Mouton’s promotion and also the year of his death), and Andy Warhol (1975) have changed its appearance from one vintage to the next. Each label has become a small window onto its time.

From One Generation to the Next

In 2014, Baron Philippe’s daughter, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, died. The château then became jointly owned by her three children: Camille Sereys de Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild. Her eldest son, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, became chairman of the supervisory board in October that year and, since 2018, has served as chairman and CEO, the person whose signature appears on the label today.

The château’s second wine is named Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild. Its first vintage was 1993, when it was called Le Second Vin de Mouton Rothschild; beginning with the 1994 vintage, it took its present name. That name is said to come from the residence of Baroness Philippine on the estate.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• The specialist consensus is that the name Mouton comes not from “sheep” but from an Old French place name meaning “hill.” The rams on the coat of arms are a later design associated with Baron Philippe’s zodiac sign, Aries.
• Since the 1945 “V” label, leading artists of their eras, including Dalí, Miró, Chagall, Picasso, and Warhol, have created a different label each year.
• The château is now jointly owned by the three children of Baroness Philippine, who died in 2014. Her eldest son, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, has served as chairman and CEO since 2018.