Philippine de Rothschild

Baroness Philippine Mathilde Camille de Rothschild (born Paris, France, 22 November 1933)^[1] is the owner of the French winery Château Mouton Rothschild. She also has acted under the stage name Philippine Pascale. She is the only daughter of the vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

Biography

At the time of her birth, Rothschild's mother, Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure, a French Catholic aristocrat, was the wife of Jonkheer Marc de Becker-Rémy, a Belgian nobleman. After a legal skirmish and the jonkheer's threats to kidnap his wife's child, the Becker-Rémys divorced in 1934, at which time the lovers married in Paris. However, by 1939, Philippe de Rothschild had separated from Elisabeth, who reverted to using her maiden name.

Rothschild had one brother, Charles Henri de Rothschild (born and died 1938).

When Philippine de Rothschild was ten years old, she witnessed the Gestapo arrest her mother, who later died at Ravensbrück concentration camp (the only member of the Rothschild family to die during WW2).

In 1958, she graduated from the Paris Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique and acted in La Comédie Française with Catherine Deneuve. She played one of the leading roles in Harold and Maude with Madeleine Renaud between 1973 and 1980.

She was made an Officier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2007, and in 2013 was given a lifetime achievement award by the Institute of Masters of Wine.^[2]

Work in the wine business

Rothschild entered her father's wine business in the late 1970s. When Philippe died in 1988, Philippine inherited three estates in Bordeaux: Château Mouton Rothschild (bought by her great-great grandfather Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853), Château d'Armailhac, and Château Clerc Milon. She also became chairwoman and majority owner of Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A. At the time of her father's death, the company sold 1.3 million cases of wine a year. By 2000, sales had almost doubled to 2.1 million cases. In 1999, sales amounted to around $155 million (approximately $217 million in 2013 dollars).

Her wine holdings include Château Mouton Rothschild, Château d'Armailhac, Château Clerc Milon, Domaine de Lambert, Baron Arques, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Mouton Cadet, Opus One and Viña Almaviva.

Marriages

Rothschild has been married to:

• Jacques Noël Sereys (born 1928), a French theater director and actor, whom she wed in 1961 and divorced circa 2000.^[3] They have a daughter and a son:
  • Camille Sereys de Rothschild (born 1961)
  • Philippe Sereys de Rothschild ^[4](born 1963)
• Jean-Pierre de Beaumarchais (born 1944), a biographer and scholar, who is a collateral descendant of 18th-century playwright Pierre Beaumarchais.^[5] They have one son:
  • Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild ^{[6] [7] [8]} (born 1971)

References

External links

• Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A.
• Profile at Primum Familae Vini
• Philippine Pascal at the Internet Movie Database