First published Gourmet Traveller Wine, summer 2008
Chateau Lafite Rothschild
Jane Anson
For one of the most famous names in the world of wine, Chateau Lafite Rothschild is surprisingly understated. On the far outskirts of the rather scruffy town of Pauillac, past the fairytale towers of neighbouring Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Lafite announces itself by a small sign, a cluster of low lying outbuildings, a selection of harvesting machinery, and the narrow towers of a chateau that is attractive but not imposing. There are clues, of course, that the land belonging to this property must be worth a figure in the region of US$1.5 billion. For a start, the vines look like they have been buffed and polished, rows and rows of crisp green leaves so perfectly aligned that they could have been measured by an architect. The gravel that sits between the rows also looks suspiciously perfect – large grey pebbles that form a deep, even layer along the gentle slopes. On closer inspection, the many workers are in colour-coded uniforms – green for the gardening staff, claret for the cellar workers and blue for those working in the vines. Above one of the turrets flies the five-arrowed insignia that represents the five branches of the Rothschild family. This is definitely a far cry from your run-of-the-mill wine farm; we’re in blue blood wine dynasty here.
Even getting to the gates is something of an event. The road that leads up to Chateau Lafite Rothschild is known, appropriately enough, as the Route des Chateaux. It’s a narrow, fairly torturous drive from the centre of Bordeaux, made all the longer if, as is frequently the case, you get stuck behind a harvesting machine or some other vineyard machinery, which is not at all unusual for an area that has an abundance of vines, and not much else besides. This northern route from Bordeaux has all five of the 1855 classified first growths. First Haut Brion, nestling right in the suburbs of the city in Pessac, then Margaux, Latour, Mouton and finally Lafite, around 55km north of the city centre.
The fact that you have to work the hardest to get to Lafite is perhaps appropriate for the property that was ranked ‘first among the firsts, Leader among fine wines’ 150 years ago, when the classification of Médoc wines took place at the Universal Paris Exposition. Today, a single bottle of the most recent 2007 vintage starts at US$500, with more acclaimed years such as 2005 and 2000 reaching upwards of US$2,500. Even the second wine of the estate, Carraudes de Lafite, is rarely sold for under US$100 – if you are lucky enough to find one of its annual production of 30,000 cases.
The gardens around the chateau itself are manicured and heavy with rose bushes and perfectly pruned trees, but you won't see children playing as you might around many Bordeaux properties, as no-one lives full-time in Lafite today. Rather it is kept ready for Baron Eric de Rothschild and his family when they come to Bordeaux from Paris, or for what has become the mainstay of the 18th century chateaux that litter this part of the Médoc – receptions, gala dinners, client entertainments and private events such as classical music concerts over the summer months. On the day of our visit, the staff are busying themselves preparing for a reception in the winery; the intronisation of new recruits into the Commanderie de Bontemps, the most prestigious of the wine brotherhoods of Bordeaux. In the circular second-year vinification and ageing cellar, the most modern part of the property and the area where most receptions are held, there are hordes of uniformed workers polishing the 29 stainless steel vats and the shiny copper taps on the 27 French oak vats, ensuring the levels of gravel underneath them are correct, and that the floor is washed down and polished.
‘Working at Lafite is a privilege,’ the young French guide tells us loyally. ‘To be part of something with so much history is very special.’ There are 75 full time members of staff, rising to 145 at the chateau’s on-site cooperage and Duhart Milon, the neighbouring property also owned by Baron Eric. At harvest time an extra 300 people descend on the chateau to ensure that grapes from all 110 hectares of vines can be picked as quickly and efficiently as necessary. Many of the staff members have been with the property for their entire working lives, with several having taken over the roles from their own parents. There are four workers’ cottages next to the main chateau where staff and their families can live full time. And among the best perks? ‘Every Christmas all members of staff get six bottles of wine. Last year we got three bottles of 2005, plus three bottles of 1997.’ A Christmas bonus that comes to around US$8,000.
Methods at Lafite remain remarkably traditional, from using fresh egg whites to clarify the final wine, to ageing the entire production in French oak barrels. This is something that you find in common among all the first growths – a testament no doubt to the sheer quality of their terroir, that they don’t feel the need to alter the time-honoured methods of wine making. You’ll find no 100% gravity-led winemaking here, no clever gizmos to concentrate flavours or control alcohol levels. Even the idea of a vibrating sorting table is taken under serious consideration – with trials at Duhart Milon before any introduction at Lafite. Currently, grapes are sorted by hand around four small tables by a team of five on each one. Compare this with one of Bordeaux’s most modern, technology-led winemakers, Bernard Magrez at Pape Clement, who has 100 women in white gloves sorting each one of his grapes by hand, or André Lurton at Chateau Rochemorin, who has a sorting machine that weighs the density of sugar in each grape, discarding any automatically that don’t reach the necessary weight.
Traditional or not, however, the team does everything possible to control all aspects of production. Lafite has its own barrel maker, for example, one of only four chateaux in Bordeaux to do so, and the only one that makes 100% of its requirements itself. The cellar manager and oenologist, Christophe Congé, is also manager of the cooperage, ensuring that he has a complete overview of the technical side of the wine making. There are four full time staff at the cooperage, turning out between three and four barrels each day, and the barrels go to all the Rothschild properties, including L’Evangile in Pomerol and Chateau Rieussec in Sauternes. Tests are currently being carried out on the level of toasting that the barrels receive, from a light smoke to a medium high grilling – all part of the subtle interplay of flavours that will be imparted to the final wine. Like everything else at Lafite, no decisions will be rushed into.
And where necessary, modernisation has been carried out. In the vineyard, extensive replanting and restoration work is being continually undertaken and the use of herbicides has been limited since the 1970s. Vinification is done plot-by-plot, and inevitably all picking is by hand. The circular second-year aging cellar was designed by leading Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill in the 1980s, and remains among the most visionary, modern winemaking complexes in the Medoc.
But whether the techniques are old or new, the philosophy never changes, as Christophe Salin, chairman of Domaines Baron Rothschild (Lafite), makes clear. ‘The way we work hasn’t evolved enormously over the years – we have simply improved our technical and oenological knowledge and applied them to the traditional methods that have made Lafite a leading wine over the centuries.’
The sense of tradition and the old-fashioned methods gives the whole placean air of serenity and timelessness. The oldest vines here are 130 years old, and part of the cellar dates back to the 17th century. The oldest bottle of wine that lies within it comes from 1797. The tasting area, also in the second year vinification cellar, is like an altar, and appropriately candles are lit before you begin to sample the wine (a 1996 on our visit, so dense and rich that it could have been bottled yesterday). It comes as no surprise that this place, as with Mouton Rothschild, has been an inspiration to countless artists. But where Mouton associates itself with painters, Lafite chooses photographers. Since 1985, Baron Eric began a tradition of inviting fine-arts photographers to photograph the estate, and it has since been shot through the lens of Irving Pen, Robert Doisneau and Richard Avedon, among others.
Baron Eric is now 70 years old. He has three children, but there is no laid-out succession plan. Salin is clear, however, that whichever Rothschild carries on the family tradition, there is not the slightest worry for the future. ‘The Rothschild name is powerful, of course, but truly it gives us more duty than power. We are building up the company, and looking after the wines, always for the next generation.’
BVisiting the chateau
There are four visits per day throughout the summer months, in English and French. Booking should be done at least two weeks in advance, by phone, fax or email.
The visits are free. No wine is available to buy direct.
Address: Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, 33250 Pauillac
Telephone: +33 (0) 5 53 89 78 00
Fax +33 (0) 5 53 89 78 01
Internet: www.lafite.com
LAFITE IN FIGURES
Lafite Rothschild, up to 25,000 cases annually 75% sold to export
Carraudes de Lafite, up to 30,000 cases per year.
Holdings:
Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac)
Chateau Duhart-Milon (Pauillac)
Chateau Rieussec (Sauternes)
Chateau L’Evangile (Pomerol)
Chateau d’Aussieres, (Languedoc)
Vina Los Vascos, Chile
Quinta do Carmo, Portugal
Bodega Caro, Argentina
Collection Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Distribtution
The link between Mouton Rothschild and Lafite Rothschild
The two chateaux are neighbours, and share the same family lineage, but are completely separate businesses. The two owners, Baronness Philippine de Rothschild and Baron Eric de Rothschild, are distant cousins. Their link dates back to Nathaniel de Rothschild (1812-1870). Nathaniel was British-born, but moved to Paris in 1850 to work with his uncle James Mayer Rothschild, at de Rothschild Freres bank. Just three years later, Nathaniel bought a vineyard then known as Brane Mouton, which he renamed Mouton Rothschild. In 1868, Nathaniel's Uncle James followed him into the wine business, acquiring neighboring Chateau Lafite. Although there have been rumours that the purchase was motivated by jealously, it is morse likely that the financially astute Rothschilds saw the economic potential of buying a wine property. Having completed the purchase, however, James died within weeks, leaving his children to build up the prestige of Lafite.
First published in Wine Business International, 2008
LAFITE ROTHSCHILD
Jane Anson
At the time of the 1855 ranking, Lafite was placed at the top of the first growths. While its quality suffered during the 1960s and 1970s, since Baron Eric took over in 1974, he has followed a long-term strategy of establishing the wine once again at the very top, and was instrumental on the Left Bank for raising quality through severe selection in the vineyard.
Since the last 1980s, only one-third of the crop harvested from Lafite's 103-hectare vineyard has gone into the first wine (making 18-20,000 cases annually), while another 50% of the crop makes the second wine, Carruades de Lafite Rothschild (25-30,000 cases); the rest of what is harvested is sold off in bulk to a generic AOC Pauillac wine. Its cellars are also among the most modern in the Médoc, designed by Canadian architect Ricardo Bofill.
The Rothchild family came to Lafite in 1868, when Baron James Mayer Rothschild bought the property 13 years after the classification (his nephew had brought Mouton into the family ownership two years prior to the Paris exhibition). Although he only survived the purchase by a few months, it passed to his three sons and has remained in the family ever since, perhaps representing the more traditional, establishment face of Bordeaux than its neighbour Mouton.
Today, Baron Eric runs both the estate and the wider company entitled Domaine Baron Rothschild (Lafite), which has becoming increasingly commercially important to the bottom line, through acquisitions of wine properties in France, Chile, Portugal and Argentina. The overall strategy is similar to Mouton – a mix of privately-owned chateaux, international joint ventures and commercial branded wines. The branded wine venture, DBR (Lafite) Collections, is relatively new, dating from the early 1990s. As a private company, Lafite doesn’t disclose its turnover, but it was thought to be around €110 million in 2006.
As chairman, Baron Eric is very much hands-on, described by his managing director Christophe Salin as, ‘a gentleman and a farmer, a real professional with a long term strategy’. Alongside Baron Eric and Salin, there is Estate Director Charles Chevallier, plus technical director Eric Kohler; estate manager Régis Porfilet; and oenologist and cellar master Christophe Congé. Further directors of sales and marketing divide their time between Paris and Bordeaux. The company employs 500 full-time staff, doubling that number at harvest time.
Director Salin describes the commercial strategy as a mix of tradition and innovation. ‘Lafite and the three other Bordeaux properties are sold like all grand chateaux through négociants, but we increasingly work closely with our shippers to know in which markets our wines are being sold. Perhaps 20 years ago, chateaux owners weren’t traveling and many didn’t speak English – but now we all travel, and there is no room for merchants to keep information back from us; besides, they know they could be penalised the next year by allocations, just as a chateaux can be penalised by the marketplace if they price out of line with their quality.’
‘For the rest of our properties in Portugal, the Languedoc, Chile and the DBR Collections, we use our own sales staff, and a network of importers. We in fact have only two full time sales people based in Bordeaux, because we have a distributor in each country, and allow them to implement a different sales marketing strategy for their country – of course with some flags such as whether the country is strong for on-trade or off-trade and so on. They really are our commercial network. We ensure that they have sufficient margin so they will be loyal, but we work without contracts; it’s a handshake.’
The development of the DBR-Lafite Rothschild Collection (Legende, Saga and Reserve Speciale) has seen the annual production of the company rise steeply over the past 10 years. The first year, around 4,000 cases were produced, while in 2006 that figure stood at 250,000 cases. Salin comments, ‘The development of the Collections has been an enormous success. There was a strong demand for its development because the wines from Bordeaux chateaux went up in price considerably and customers wanted something more affordable and more approachable young. We wanted a feminine touch for these, so our oenolgoist Diane Flamand developed the range, assisted by another female palate in Frederique Que.’
The majority of the overseas investment has gone into Chile, where the company holds over 580 hectares of vineyards at Los Vascos, at an average of 130 metres above sea level and at just 40 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean. A more recent venture has been In Argentina, where Baron Eric has begun working with Nicolás Catena of Bodega Cantena Zapata (often described as the Robert Mondavi of Argentina).
In 2004, DBR also increased their shareholding in Chalone, a US wine company that developed the Quintessa winery, vineyards and brand with the Huneeus Family. Constellation Brands fine wine company, Franciscan Estates, joined as partners and brought their estate Oakville Vineyard into the new company. They now plan to produce a wine under DBR’s guidance in Napa Valley, with Agustin F Huneeus chief executive officer, and Christophe Salin as chairman of the board.
‘For our joint ventures,’ Salin explains, ‘we bring discipline and long term views. It’s not about wine making, it’s rather about viticulture. Our marketing strategy has been to educate our consumers by introducing other wines on to the market. So in Chile, we started by making cabernet sauvignon, and explaining to the market that this was a Bordeaux varietal that could be bought at a cheaper price because it was from Chile, but of exceptional quality because it was made with our expertise honed in Bordeaux. We want customers to see our international wines as the first step on the ladder and that one day they’ll be drinking Lafite. The Rothschild name is powerful, of course, but truly it gives us more duty than power. We are building up the company, and looking after the wines, always for the next generation.’
Lafite In figures
Employs 500 staff worldwide
Total annual production = 850,000 cases
Lafite Rothschild, up to 25,000 cases annually 75% sold to export
Carraudes de Lafite, up to 30,000 cases per year.
Collections 90% export
Current annual production in terms of cases:
Chile 400,000 looking to move up to 500,000 (8,000 cases to Chile, 150,000 to the US, and the rest elsewhere)
Portugal 40,000 cases
Argentina 20,000 (intend to grow to 35,000 maximum)
Languedoc 20,000
The Collections 250,000
The chateaux altogether 120,000 cases – 50%/50% first and second.
Holdings
Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac)
Chateau Duhart-Milon (Pauillac)
Chateau Rieussec (Sauternes)
Chateau L’Evangile (Pomerol)
Chateau d’Aussieres, (Languedoc)
Vina Los Vascos, Chile
Quinta do Carmo, Portugal
Bodega Caro, Argentina
Collection Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Distribtution
Lafite’s photographers
Where Mouton associated itself with artists, Lafite chose photographers. It has been shot through the lens of Irving Pen, Robert Doisneau, Richard Avedon, among others.
How the two families are connected
Philippine and Eric are distant cousins. Their link dates back to Nathaniel de Rothschild (1812-1870). Nathaniel was British-born, but moved to Paris in 1850 to work with his uncle James Mayer Rothschild, in banking (at de Rothschild Freres). Just three years later, Nathaniel bought a vineyard then known as Brane Mouton, which he renamed Mouton Rothschild. In 1868, Nathaniel's Uncle James followed him into the wine business, acquiring neighboring Chateau Lafite. Although there have been persisitent rumours that the purchase was motivated by jealously, or one upmanship, it is likely that the financially astute Rothschilds saw what vast economic returns lay in purchasing wine properties at the time. Having achieve the purchase, however, he died within weeks.
Today, although completely separate businesses, the family do work together to protect shared interests, such as fraud or improper use of the Rothschild name.
Other winemaking Rothschilds
A great grandson of James, Edmond de Rothschild (1926-1997) bought Chateau Clarke in Bordeaux, and founded Compagnie Vinicole Edmond et Benjamin de Rothschild. Today the company has four estates in the Listrac and Moulis appellations of Bordeaux, plus further ventures in South Africa and Argentina.
Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons, of Fredericksburg, South Africa, is a partnership between the Ruperts and Benjamin de Rothschild
En Primeur Exit Prices Since 2000
Both Mouton and Lafite have had exactly the same en primeur exit prices since 2000.
2005: €300
2004: €80
2003: €120
2002: €60
2001: €85
2000: €120
A well known Bordeaux negociant commented, ‘Until very recently, all first growths were releasing at a similar price. But with the arrival of Francois Pinaut at Latour and LVMH at Cheval Blanc, things got more complex: perhaps there was pressure to a return on investment as quickly as possible, perhaps there were egos at play. Of the five 1855 1st growths, Latour and Margaux are now releasing higher, Lafite, Mouton and Haut-Brion staying behind. That is also in line with the current prices of older vintages available at different wine merchants, where Latour and Margaux reach higher prices.’