Rothschild $17,000-a-Bottle Mouton Owes Success to Bad Boy

Charging down the red carpet of the 64th Cannes Film Festival last month, the 39-year-old grandson of Baron Philippe de Rothschild recalled his pioneering ancestor’s eccentricities with delight.

“My grandfather was the only Rothschild who detested being referred to as a businessman,” says Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild. He’s the baron’s heir and with his 77-year-old mother, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, owns privately held Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA, which he says annually produces between 100,000 and 150,000 bottles of the Bordeaux first-growth Pauillac Chateau Mouton Rothschild.