3. After the Conflict
Baron Philippe de Rothschild conceived a special label for the 1945 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild, "Année de la Victoire", with the "V" of Victory. This was the first label of the famous Rothschild artist series.
Several other labels, to reduce the printing costs, were printed in advance in great quantities. At that time, the vintage year was often omitted or added to the label by hand. Some Austrian producers who had their labels printed in advance under the German appellation "OSTMARK" were compelled to use them also for the 1945 vintage. On such labels, a hand-stamped "ÖSTERREICH" promptly covered the printed term "OSTMARK".
In the following Austrian label, the official German administrative province name "NIEDERDONAU" still appears as badly covered by a hand-stamp.
An Italian vermouth producer, who previously thought useful adding a red flag with swastika to his labels, did not change the labels, left the red flag and had simply the swastika badly scratched away by the printer.
Germany was divided into two and East Germany proclaimed separate government on 7 October 1949. The most important winegrowing areas remained in West Germany. To satisfy the internal demand, East Germany was obliged to substantial import of cheap wines from Eastern Europe.
The label reproduced here characterizes the wine as "half-sweet wine from the people's democracies".
