Philippine de Rothschild, Wine Nobility, Dies at 80

Philippine de Rothschild, a scion of the vaunted winemaking family who helped modernize and expand a renowned wine-producing enterprise that sells 22 million bottles annually, died on Saturday in Paris. She was 80.

Her company, Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA, announced the death, attributing it to “complications from surgery,” which the company did not describe.

Baron Philippe de Rothschild, her father, took over the Château Mouton Rothschild estate in 1922 and lifted it into the first rank of Bordeaux chateaus. The official French rating classified Mouton in the second tier, and the baron was determined to join the four chateaus designated as premier: Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Margaux and Latour. In 1973 the baron succeeded, and put a new label on his bottles: “I am first, I was second.”

When the baron died in 1988, Baroness Philippine became the first woman in five generations to lead Mouton. She followed her father’s path, but in her own way.

The baron had begun a tradition in 1945 of commissioning prominent artists like Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol to design the label every year. The baroness did the same and in 1990 approached the English painter Francis Bacon to ask if she could use a painting of a nude that her father had rejected. Mr. Bacon asked what had changed.

“I’m not my father,” she answered.

Madame de Rothschild, as she preferred to be called, achieved the status of grande dame in the wine universe — or simply “the Baroness.” She modernized and diversified her estate’s production, and formed a partnership in Chile to create Almaviva wines.

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