Winery: Château Lafite Rothschild

Winery information

Château Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac, Bordeaux, France is famous for their identically named top wine. The wines are of a consistently high quality and as a result they are one of the most excellent and expensive wines you can buy from Bordeaux (well, world wide actually). Lafite can outshine other 1st growths in less-than-ideal vintages.

Château Lafite Rothschild has been famous for a long time. In 1855, at the Médoc classification, it got classified as a Premier Grand Cru or First Growth, the highest possible classification. One might think that such a famous wine is rare, however this is not the case. It seems that most of the bottles are not being bought by the person that will drink the wine: many buy the wine as an investment. The wine is offered to the market before it is even bottled, during the "Bordeaux En Primeur" campagne, or pre-release, which takes place in the spring following the year of harvest. Usually it does not arrive at the owner until 2 years after being sold.

Because the wine is seen as an investment, it usually changes hands a couple of times before someone actually gets to drink it. This, plus the fact that the wine comes in relatively high quantities (around 20.000 cases of 12 bottles), makes that the wines is pretty easy to buy, assuming you have deep pockets.

Lafite Rothschild has become incredibly popular in China where it is seen as a status symbol. It is not really clear why Lafite has become the big brand there and not Margaux, Latour or Haut-Brion, wines of equal greatness. Some suggest Lafite is the easiest to pronounce in Mandarin. Jancis Robinson suggests it is a combinanion of easy pronunciation, the Lafites being the first to target the Chinese market, and a good Chinese website. It certainly works, as anything related to Lafite (even their second wine Carruades de Lafite and their Bordeaux AOC) commands prices way beyond similar wines.

The wines from Château Lafite Rothschild:

Pauillac

Château Lafite Rothschild