Chateau Mouton Rothschild First Growth Wine Crate

Chateau Mouton Rothschild is arguably the most prestigious of all the First Growth vineyards, It's definitely the most famous among collectors due to name recognition and popularity at auction.

The Mouton wooden wine crate has a rare format. Since the 2000 vintage, every one was made oversized by a few inches. This makes quite a difference because most wine crates from Bordeaux are about the same size.

Traditional Bordeaux Format: 19 1/2" L X 13" W X 7" H

Vintage 2000+ Mouton Wine Crates: 22" L X 14" W X 7 1/2" H

This presents a bit of a problem for storage as most wine cellar cubbies designed for wine crates are generally to match the traditional format. Unless the cellar build has some wiggle-room on the cubby holes, your Mouton Rothschild wine crates will be stacked either on the floor or on top of the racks.

The crates are also quite a bit heavier than the traditionals by about 3 pounds which is significant. This is because of the overall construction. The sides, base and lid are about a quarter-inch thicker. It's a very sturdy piece.

Besides the size and weight of each crate, what distinguishes a Mouton Rothschild from any other is the artwork. Every few years the vineyard commissions a different and famous French artist to re-design the ram logo to introduce the vintage. The look of each of these new re-designs is subtle but tastefully unique from the others.

As far as rarity they're very difficult to acquire because so few are made.

Little known fact: Only half of all Bordeaux wines are exported outside of France. The other half is distributed throughout the world. Mouton Rothschild creates around 12,000 cases every year, so this means only 6,000 are available to everyone else! Mouton Rothschild wine crates are, in all literal terms, a 1 in a million item.

We do however have a few available if your interested. Give me a call or e-mail to buy one for yourself while we still have them in stock!

Patrick
www.winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
sales@winecratesandboxes.com

Chateau Margaux Wooden Wine Crate

The majority of investors and collectors in Bordeaux wine consider Chateau Margaux to be the best among the First Growths in terms of quality. Considering all First Growths are considered the 5 best in the world this is quite a distinction!

The birth of the "official" Margaux vineyard occurred in the early 1500's, although the plot of land on which it stands was harvesting superior grapes for wine far before that.

The artwork branding on the Margaux wine crate is of the famous Margaux Chateau which dates back to 1801, and is called The Marquis de la Colonilla: "The Grand Estate of the Little River"

Like most First Growths, Chateau Margaux is made to be carefully stored for a couple of decades in order to reach it's peak condition. Keeping the wine in it's original crate is ideal for this purpose. Fine wine should be kept in a fairly cool and dark environment. This is especially true with Margaux. Most investors purchase a complete case or more with the wooden wine crate included years before the wine is actually released. Since only 6 - 8 thousand cases of Margaux are made every year, original wine crates directly from the vineyard are very rare.

We have a handful of original Chateau Margaux wine crates in stock at the moment, so if your interested in one feel free to give me a call or e-mail

Patrick
www.winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
sales@winecratesandboxes.com

Chateau Haut-Brion Wine Crate

The revered First Growth vineyard of Chateau Haut-Brion creates the most unique wooden wine crate in Bordeaux. It's far from your standard size and has a honeycomb style insert format to allow for 6 bottles to be on each side as opposed to 6 on the bottom and 6 on the top.

For design  purposes it's most often mixed with the other 4 First Growth crates in a wine room or cellar montage. It can also be used as a side table since it has a good width and length.

Dimensions of a Chateau Haut-Brion wine crate: 21" L X 15" W X 6" H

Personally I like it the way it is and due to it's length and width it's easy to stack other wine crates on top of it as a base.

The branded design on the front is elegant and old world. The winery was purchased by a conglomerate several years ago but they didn't attempt to make any significant changes to the vineyard process at all. They kept the traditional ways intact.

The year of the crate in the picture above is 1982, which is arguably the 20th century's best vintage in Bordeaux. The wine itself is a bit past it's peak, but any lover of Bordeaux wines is familiar with how spectacular this vintage was.

We happen to have a 1982 Haut-Brion in stock! If your interested please let me know. It's priced at $99 plus $11 shipping. It's extremely rare and your not likely to find another anytime soon. The value of it's collectability can't be understated, as all the 1982 First Growth wines were sold out long ago leaving the original wine crates incredibly scarce.

Patrick
www.winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
sales@winecratesandboxes.com

Chateau Latour Wooden Wine Crate

Chateau Latour is my favorite of the 5 First Growth wine crates and I'll tell you why:

• The wine is rare. It's got the smallest production of all the 5 Growths
• Due to the wine being so rare, very few cases are made per vintage making Latour wine crates scarce.
• Investing in Chateau Latour wine has traditionally been a good idea. Because of the small production, rarity and name recognition, buying the wine crate could also be considered an investment.
• I love the design! The lion represents St. Joan of Arc standing on the Castle Rouen. As a history buff I find that fascinating.

*Latour also produces a 2nd and 3rd label that has the tower of Saint Lambert branded on them, This isn't to be confused with the Castle Rouen, 

Most vintages of Latour make a standard-sized wine crate (19 1/2" L X 13" W X 7" H). Since the year 2000 though Latour has been changing the size of their bottles, in-turn making their crates oversized. This is also what's happening at the Mouton Rothschild First Growth vineyard. I'm not sure who started it...

Mild design changes of the Latour logo also happened since the 2000 vintage. The Lion and castle have remained the same more or less for the last few hundred years, but the text style and sizes did get larger.

I once saw a Chatesu Latour wine crate from 1969 with a similar lion and castle. It was gorgeous but had a much more vintage kind of feel to it. I'll try to get a picture at some point so you can see the difference.

My opinion is that if your looking to enhance the design of your home or wine cellar than you can't go wrong with a Latour wine crate from any year. Between the historical value and highly detailed design, it'll surely catch your guests eyes when they enter the room!

At the moment we only have a handful of Latour crates in stock so contact me if your interested in one.

Patrick
sales@winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
www.winecratesandboxes.com

Chateau Lafite Rothschild Wooden Wine Crate

Chateau Lafite Rothschild is arguably the most recognized wine in the world. It has a simple yet elegant logo deeply branded on the front side representing the chateau design. Mouton Rothschild as a contrast frequently makes small changes to it's design logo, The Lafite design hasn't changed much at all in the past thousand years.

Although the estate is recorded as making spectacular wines since the early 1200's, it's very likely that vines were planted there well before the Roman Empire. Lafite was purchased by Baron Rothschild in the mid-1800's, and has been part of the Rothschild estate ever since.

The Lafite wine crate is highly collectible even though 20,000 cases are made every year. Half of the cases stay in France, and most of the others are often purchased well before vintage release in the form of futures. This means that investors will scoop up all of the original wooden wine crates complete with wine 2-3 years in advance! Acquiring a Lafite Rothschild crate is very difficult at best.

For every 1,000 wooden wine crates that arrive to us I'd estimate 1 or 2 is a Lafite Rothschild. This is how rare they are.

At the moment we have a few in stock so give me a call or e-mail if you'd like to purchase one.

Patrick
www.winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
sales@winecratesandboxes.com

Chateau Petrus Wooden Wine Box

Considered the "6th Growth" of Bordeaux, Chateau Petrus is the world's most well-known vineyard. An off-vintage bottle can cost thousands of dollars, and a good vintage is virtually unavailable to anyone except wine investors who purchased the reserved futures years before.

The wine box itself is a work of art. It's made of pure Bordeaux wood and has the iconic Petrus logo engraved deeply onto the front side.

Depending on the vintage and importer there may be other sides that are engraved as well. The front side has the highly detailed design that hasn't changed in nearly a century.

The logo was invented by the owner Madame Loubat in the 1940's. It was inspired by her appreciation of St. Peter who "Who holds the keys to Heaven".

You'd buy a Petrus wooden wine box because you have a complete collection of 6 bottles from the same vintage. When you buy bottles one at a time they don't include the wooden box. Because of the price of a full case of Petrus most people would opt to put a down payment on a house instead! Due to the market demand of the wine however, acquiring just about any authentic bottle is most likely a wise investment if stored properly.
 
Once you have all 6 bottles the reasons you'd want to buy the original wine box:

• To preserve the bottles in perfect form and protect them from breakage. Wine cellars are usually lit, and mixing light with wine is generally a bad idea. The Petrus wooden wine box will always keep the bottles in full darkness.
• Selling at auction. Petrus wine complete with it's original wine crate (OWC) increases profits by 10-15%
• Finishing the collection. Many customers purchase one bottle at a time, so when they get all 6 they want the original box.

If your not ready to take the plunge into wine investing and your simply looking for a unique accent to your wine room, bar or cellar; The Petrus wine box is an ideal solution. It can be a table centerpiece or displayed on a shelf to fill an empty spot. Even if your friends aren't wine enthusiasts you'll still receive compliments on how nice it looks. If they're fond of exceptional Bordeaux wines however, they know how rare it is and you may get a few offers for it!

Patrick

www.winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
sales@winecratesandboxes.com

The 5 First Growth Wooden Wine Crates

In 1855 Napoleon named that the best vineyards in all of France were the following:

• Chateau Haut-Brion
• Chateau Lafite Rotshchild
• Chateau Margaux
• Chateau Mouton Rothschild
• Chateau Latour

He called these vineyards the First Growths. The next best of Bordeaux are called Second Growths, the third best are Third Growths, and all the way up to Fifth Growth.

All growths are Grand Cru vineyards which are considered the finest in the world. The First Growths are the best of Grand Cru.

Most Grand Cru vineyards make wooden wine crates to store and protect their bottles in transit. Since all of these wines are imported from France, there's a great need to make sure none break during their sea voyage.

Each vineyard has something unique and special about it, and their wine crates reflect this individuality. Chateau Haut-Brion for example is a different shape than any other wine crate. It's shorter and wider than the other four. The crate most similar to an Haut-Brion would be the Chateau Y'quem 12 bottle, but no other crate is quite the same.

Mouton Rothschild typically makes slightly larger bottles than the others, so it's a bit longer and taller. On occasion Latour makes a larger bottle and crate format as well. It's more or less vintage-specific.

Margaux and Lafite stick to the standard for the most part. They come out with the same sized crate just about every year.

Obtaining all 5 First Growths in one collection is very difficult. This is mainly because investors and collectors buy them by the case and don't release them until it's time for auction. When you sell the wine complete with the original crate your going to have a larger profit margin. Not only are you offering the complete collection, but it's a solid indication that a good quality of provenance was maintained. Holding your wine in an original crate keeps the bottles cool, dark and safe.

If you're able to find all 5 First Growth wine crates in one collection it's an investment in itself. It's not uncommon that you'll find a collector willing to pay a significant premium for one or all of them at once. This happens all the time.

The one thing you can't go wrong with is that all will look great in your wine room or cellar. This is especially the case if your a Bordeaux enthusiast. You'd be able to display the best of the best, and everyone will wonder how in the world you acquired them!

Patrick

sales@winecratesandboxes.com
518-475-8625
www.winecratesandboxes.com