Classification: Premier Cru Class 1855
VINEYARDS
surface area: 247.1 acres
grape varietals: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot average age of the vines: 30 years
density of plantation: 8,500 vines per hectare
average yields: 50 hectoliters per hectare

WINEMAKING AND UPBRINGING
After a manual harvest, the grapes are sorted in the vineyard. A classical vinification in oak and stainless-steel vats ensues, with three weeks of maceration depending on the chosen va-rietals, maturity, and extractability of the tannins. Eighteen to twenty months in new oak barrels (made at Lafite's own cooperage) complete the young wine's maturation. Lafite is very lightly fined and filtered prior to bottling.

ANNUAL PRODUCTION
Chateau Lafite Rothschild: 18,000-25,000 cases
Carruades de Lafite: 20,000-25,000 cases
GREAT RECENT VINTAGES
2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999,1998, 1996, 1995, 1990, 1988, 1986, 1983, 1982

The name Lafite comes from the Gascon language term "la hite," which means "hillock." The
first known reference to Lafite dates back to the 13th cen-tury, but it wasn't until the 17th century that the prop-erty began to earn its reputation as a winemaking estate. Jacques de Segur is credited with the planting of the Lafite vineyard in the 1670s and in the early 1680s. By the early 18th century, Lafite had found its mar-ket in London. Between 1732 and 1733, Robert Wal-pole, the prime minister, purchased a barrel of Lafite every three months.

Marquis Nicolas Alexandre de Segur improved the winemaking techniques, and above all enhanced the prestige of the wines in foreign markets and the Ver-sailles court. He became known as "The Wine Prince," and Lafite's wine became "The King's Wine," with the support of an able ambassador, the Marechal de Riche-lieu. In 1755, Richelieu was appointed governor of Guyenne, and upon his return to Paris, Louis XV re-marked, "Marechal, you look twenty-five years younger than you did when you left for Guyenne." Richelieu re-sponded, "Does his Majesty not yet know that I've at long last found the Fountain of Youth I have found that Chateau Lafite wines make invigorating cordials¡ª they are as delicious as the ambrosia of the Gods of Olympus."

The Count de Segur, in considerable debt, was forced to sell Chateau Lafite in 1784. Nicolas Pierre de Pichard, the first president of the Bordeaux Parliament, and a relative of the count, used the "kinship rights" legislation to purchase the estate.

By the late 1780s, Lafite had an international fol-lowing that included such dignitaries as Thomas Jeffer-son, future president of the United States. While serving as ambassador to the Versailles Court, Jefferson acquired a passion for winemaking and considered developing it in his own country. During his stay in Bordeaux in May 1787, he detailed the hierarchy of the growths and desig-nated Chateau Lafite as one of the four leading wines.

The Segur family's stewardship of Lafite ended brutally with the execution of Nicolas Pierre de Pichard during the French Revolution. In the lobby of Chateau Lafite is an ancient poster announcing the public sale of the property on September 12, 1797. The estate was then described as "the leading Medoc wine, producing the finest wines in all of Bordeaux."

In 1815, the famous Bordeaux firm of wine ex-perts, Lawton, published an initial classification of Medoc wines in their brokerage house log and pro-claimed Lafite wines "the most superb in all of Medoc." The vintage rankings of the Universal Paris Exposition in 1855 officially classified Lafite as a first growth, rank-ing it a "leader among fine wines."

In August 1868, Baron James de Rothschild pur-chased Chateau Lafite, which had once again been placed up for public sale. Baron James, who was head of the French branch of the Rothschild family, passed away just three months after purchasing Lafite. The estate then be-came the joint property of his three sons: Alphonse, Gus-tave, and Edmond. At that time the estate boasted 183 acres of vineyards. Coincidentally, the 1868 Lafite be-came the highest-priced wine of the vintage, setting a record that would remain for the entire century.

The end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century were devastating. The phylloxera cri-sis, followed by World War I and the Great Depression, led to a precipitous dive in prices. The Depression caused an unprecedented financial crisis that forced the Rothschilds to sell part of the estate's vineyard area. De-spite these trials, several great vintages were pro-duced¡ª1899, 1900,1906,1926, and 1929.

World War II deepened the gloom, and with the June 1940 defeat of France, the Germans occupied the Medoc. The Rothschild family properties were confis-cated and placed under public administration to serve as agricultural vocational schools. A German garrison was entrenched for the entire length of the occupation at Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and the chateau suffered from requisitions and ransacking of ancient vintages. The Barons de Rothschild recovered possession of Chateau Lafite Rothschild at the end of 1945.

Baron Elie led a program to restore the vineyards and the buildings, and to fully restructure the prop-erty's administration. The brilliant 1953 and very good 1955 were evidence of the estate's renewal, but the Bor-deaux vineyard suffered terrible frosts in February of 1955 before producing a new cycle of exceptional vin-tages in 1959 and 1961. The 1960s rounded out the ren-aissance with the addition of new markets, particularly the United States.

After the 1973-1976 international oil crisis hit Bor-deaux, the chateau rebounded once again with the 1975 and 1976 vintages under the management of Baron Eric de Rothschild. In the vineyard, the replanting and restora-tion work continued, fertilizing was reevaluated, and her-bicide treatment limited. In the cellars, a stainless-steel tank complex was installed alongside oak tanks, and a new circular aging chai.

Lafite remains Bordeaux's most famous property and wine, and¡ªwith its elegant, undersized, and under-stated label¡ªhas become a name synonymous with wealth, prestige, history, respect, and wines of remark-able longevity.

While the vintages since 1975 have witnessed a suc-cession of superlative Lafites, wines produced between 1961 and 1974 were of surprising mediocrity for a first growth. It has always remained a mystery to tasters why more wine critics did not cry foul after tasting some of the Lafite wines made during this period. The official chateau's position has always been that the wines were made in a light, elegant style and were simply over-matched in blind tastings by bigger, more robust wines. Certainly such things do happen, but the mediocrity of Lafite was particularly obvious in very fine vintages¡ª 1971,1970,1966,1961,1949,1945¡ªin which the wines were surprisingly deficient in color, excessively dry, overly oaked, and abnormally high in acidity. Several vintages¡ª1974,1971,1969¡ªwere complete failures yet released for high prices under the Lafite name.

The reasons for such missteps are not likely to ever be revealed by the Rothschild family, but the problems in the 1960s and early 1970s seem to correlate with the following: First, the absentee owners lived in Paris and only casually supervised the goings-on at Lafite. Cer-tainly Lafite has been diligently managed by the con-cerned and committed Eric de Rothschild since 1975. Second, the wine at Lafite was often aged a minimum of 32 to 36 months in oak barrels, whereas now 20 to 30 months is maximum, which no doubt causes Lafite to taste fruitier and fresher. Third, the current winemaking staff at Lafite picks the grapes later, to obtain greater ripeness and lower acidity in their wines, and the selec-tion process is undoubtedly more severe. Since 1990, it has not been unusual for Lafite to eliminate a whopping 60% of the harvest, either selling it off in bulk or relegat-ing it to the second wine. Finally, Lafite Rothschild is being bottled over a shorter period of time. There were unsubstantiated reports that Lafite often dragged out the bottling operation over as many as 8 to 12 months, allowing unacceptable levels of bottle variation. Today the entire crop is bottled within 2 or 3 weeks.

Regardless of the past, Lafite Rothschild is now producing compelling wines, and the turnabout in quality that clearly began in 1975 accelerated in the mid-1990s when Charles Chevallier was asked to man-age the estate. One could successfully argue that since 1981, Lafite Rothschild has produced some of the Medoc's best wines in years such as 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1990, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1983, 1982, and 1981.