Special Mouton Cadet Ryder Cup cuvée created

Baron Philippe de Rothschild has partnered legendary golf course architect and wine lover Robert Trent Jones, Jr. to design this year’s Ryder Cup limited edition. This special Mouton Cadet cuvée will be the official wine of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota (Sept. 27 - Oct 2, 2016).

“The relationship between Mouton Cadet and the Ryder Cup began in Europe at the 2014 tournament, played in Gleneagles, Scotland. The partnership aligns two like-minded pursuits - golf and wine - and we are delighted to join the Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic for the very first time,” says Hugues Lechanoine, MD of Baron Philippe de Rothschild. “When I met Robert Trent Jones, Jr., we discussed links between golf and wine, and he spontaneously said yes to working on the design of our Ryder Cup Cuvée. We are delighted to collaborate with him on this exciting and meaningful project.”

Robert Trent Jones, Jr. started his career as a caddie or ‘cadet’ of his own father, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. while learning the skills employed by golf architects. Robert Trent Jones and his sons are the only family to have created multiple original Ryder Cup courses. Hazeltine National Golf Club holds a particular significance, as his father created its original design for the 1970 US Open, which Trent Jones, Jr. attended with his family and later celebrated that event with his own original design of the 2015 US Open Championship course, Chambers Bay.

With that history as inspiration, Trent Jones, Jr. sketched an idea for a bottle design of Mouton Cadet Ryder Cup Special Cuvée, a drawing of a caddie – which serves as a tribute to his father, as well as to Baron Philippe de Rothschild, creator of Mouton Cadet and ‘cadet’ of his own family.

“I am extremely honoured to partner with Mouton Cadet on the design of this bottle,” adds Trent Jones, Jr. “Wine – like golf – is about passion, respect for nature, etiquette and sharing moments in life. A golf course architect and a winemaker share a similar approach to their work: cultivating the land they are given, being true to the environment, enhancing the most pleasing elements of a landscape or a wine, providing either course challenges or tasting pleasures. The Ryder Cup brings together great golfers for a competition where team spirit means more than individual performance, exactly as blending wine brings more than one single varietal to create a special cuvée.”

The Mouton Cadet Ryder Cup Special Cuvée will be available from the end of March at Hazeltine National Golf Club, as well as fine retailers in New York. Starting in the summer of 2016, it will also be sold in selected markets around the world. The wine will also be served at Hazeltine National Golf Club during the 2016 Ryder Cup. 

Pictured above: Charissa Thompson, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and Hugues Lechanoine & Mouton Cadet 2016 Ryder Cup Special Cuvée

30 March 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor