ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PARIS
SOURCE: Associated Press
The wine was fine, but the label was in poor taste, complained some American wine drinkers about the 1993 vintage from France's most famous producer.
The label featured a drawing of a reclining, nude girl by the world-renowned artist Balthus.
But after hearing complaints from some Californians, Chateau Mouton Rothschild quickly slapped new, sanitized labels on its bottles bound for the United States.
``While I believe there is absolutely nothing erotic or pornographic about the sketch of a nude 10-year-old girl - the nude has inspired artists for centuries - I respect the feelings and beliefs of our customers,'' Baroness Philippine de Rothschild said Thursday.
De Rothschild, who heads the Mouton Rothschild vineyards in Pauillac, near Bordeaux, said that 30,000 bottles were relabeled earlier this year for the American market ``out of respect.''
The new labels still carry the Chateau Mouton name and the wine's vintage. But where the 2 ;1/2-by-4-inch nude drawing was, there is a blank space.
The chateau has been asking artists to design its labels since 1924, and its bottles have featured works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon.
Most works by Balthus, who at 88 lives in Switzerland, are of nude pubescent girls. His highly stylized paintings hang in the world's finest museums.
The artists are ``paid'' for their art with 10 cases of that year's Mouton, plus 10 cases from the Baroness Philippine's own cellar.
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Bottles of the 1993 vintage of Chateau Moutonby CNBRothschild get different labels for the United States.