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Bottle 4 — Second Place Is No Comfort
ShortsPublished 2026-09-26
Video coming soonThe bottle
The story in this episode
The fourth bottle, Château Mouton Rothschild 2005, is one whose cork stays in. Nathaniel de Rothschild bought the estate in 1853, but two years later the 1855 classification ranked it a second growth, and for more than a century the label carried the line "First I cannot be, second I do not deign to be, Mouton I am." From 1945 a different artist drew each vintage's label. In 1973 Mouton became the only estate ever to have the 1855 classification revised in its favour, and the motto changed to "First I am, second I was, Mouton does not change." The 2005 label is Giuseppe Penone's drawing of the vine-grower's 'green fingers': a vine leaf spreading out, and at the same time a drinker's open hand about to close round a glass.
