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It's impossible to talk about the great wines of the Médoc without mentioning Château Lafite-Rothschild. A Domaine steeped in history, whose reputation and prestige are matched only by the legendary wines born there.
Ancient medieval seigneury, it was under Jacques de Ségur, from a family of Bordeaux parliamentarians, that the first vines were planted in the 1670's. The wine gradually acquired an excellent reputation thanks to technical progress, at the royal court of Versailles but also across the Channel with the expansion of trade with England. Then in 1787, Thomas Jefferson, US ambassador to France at the time, praised it in his travel notes.
The Château Lafite was promoted to the rank of Ier Grand Cru Classé in 1855 on the occasion of the Paris Universal Exhibition, a distinction it shares with the Château Latour, Château Haut-Brion and Château Margaux, as well as the Château Mouton Rothschild since 1973.
The subsequent rise of Château Lafite owes much to the Rothschild family, with Baron James de Rothschild acquiring the estate in 1868 and attaching his name to it from that date. When Baron Eric took over the reins in 1974, everything was gradually put in place with the aim of modernizing and improving performance, in order to reveal the exceptional potential of the terroir. Today, his... See more ...
Wine review of Château Lafite-Rothschild on 2022 vintage :
"2022 will be remembered as a vintage of excess: too hot, too dry, too everything. The weather this year was like a fiery poet, one who gets carried away, who goes too far, but who miraculously makes it work.
The lack of water pushed the vines to their limits and made them move moundlas.
The winter had started out rather cold compared with recent years, with little rain at the beginning. Frost at the end of March, beginning of April scared us as the vines oscillated between green tips and spreading leaves. April and May saw temperatures start to rise, with record-breaking heat in May.
We were clearly ahead, with mid-flowering around 20-25 May for all grape varieties. The heat picked up in June, fortunately with some rain: it was the precious 110 millimetres that fell from mid-June that let us stay on course.
Then came three successive heatwaves, one per month, in a summer that reminded the vines of their southern origins: from 14 to 18 lune then between 11 and 18 July and finally between 8 and 12 August.
The most fragile vines could not recover from this third heatwave. Like marathon runners who fall before reaching the finish line. In mid-August, we walked through all our vineyards, in Pauillac, Pomerol and Sauternes,
and marked the worst-affected areas in the plots in locations that sometimes surprised us. This was to be of value later, in understanding their reactions and the different aromatics. Fortunately, many were the valiant who crossed the finish line, with a smile on their face".
