Château Lafite: A Tale of Discretion, Reticence and Gravel
Ned Goodwin MW explores the storied history and great traditions of Château Lafite.
Château Lafite is an illustrious estate situated in the far north of Pauillac, a commune in Bordeaux’s Haut-Médoc region. Only a small stream separates the estate from the neighbouring commune of Saint-Estèphe. Lafite was designated Premier Grand Cru Classé by the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, together with châteaux Haut-Brion, Latour, Margaux and later, in 1973, Mouton-Rothschild. Yet if Haut-Brion is defined by the whiff of terracotta and tannins of an impeccable alloy; Latour by its imperious power; Margaux by elegance and its beguiling perfume and Mouton, by a hedonistic flamboyance, polish and swagger; Lafite is marked by a refined discretion, as understated as the traditional approach to winemaking and the barn-like chais that surround the property. Yet for many collectors, Lafite is the finest of them all. Where lies the grandeur?
It is easy to suggest that Lafite’s grandeur resides in venerated vintages such as 1918, 1945, 1946, 1947, the spellbinding 1959 and 1961, along with the greats of more recent years including 1982, 1986, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2010. Then there is the wondrous trilogy of 2018, 2019 and 2020. Yet one must dig deeper.
The property dates back to 1234 when it was a farm for cereal and cattle. Then owner Gombaud de Lafite bestowed a name that today connotes among the most expensive wines in the world. Vines came into existence in 1680, attested by records indicating plantings by Jacques de Ségur. His brother Alexandre de Ségur married Marie Therese de Clauzel, heiress to Château Latour. The familial ownership of these two great properties ceased, however, when their son died. Thereafter, the first mention of Lafite in reverential terms was in 1797 when it was sold again as a ‘Premier Cru of Médoc’, alluding to what was to come with the 1855 Classification. Interestingly, it was the accountant at the time, Monsieur Goudal, that retained bottles and historical documentation including the oldest bottle in existence, a 1797. It was around this time, too, that American President Thomas Jefferson proclaimed Lafite as his favourite wine.
In 1853 Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild, an English member of the Rothschild dynasty, purchased Château Brane-Mouton. This ultimately became Château Mouton-Rothschild. On August 8, 1868, his brother James Rothschild bought Lafite at a Paris auction as a show of greater influence. By then Mouton remained a Deuxième Cru Classé and Lafite, a Premier.
Today Lafite is among the oldest châteaux in the Médoc, with part of the property dating back to 1562. It was also among the first to bottle its own wine, commencing in 1896. And yet, the outdated approach to bottling from singular barrels remained throughout the 1960’s, resulting in radical bottle-to-bottle variation. Subsequently, it is a period best avoided. It wasn’t until 1970 that blending vats were introduced. And while a cavernous new 55,000 case cellar was built in 1987, propitiously timed during a poor vintage, Lafite’s approach to its craft remains starkly traditional compared to its illustrious First Growth rivals: fermentation is in large wooden vats in place since the 1980’s, stainless steel tanks and concrete of various sizes. Malolactic conversion occurs in stainless steel. Yet there is no gravity transportation of juice or must, while the majority of fruit is sorted in the vineyards. This said, there is a drive toward GPS, drones, heat mapping and other modern technology used to identify ripeness patterns in the vineyards, appropriate picking windows and maximise quality as at other top addresses, yet it is still far from de rigueur. Élévage is in small barrels for 18 to 20 months, depending on the nature of the vintage. The oak is coopered en situ at the Lafite cooperage, just down the road from the châteaux, at the Tonnelleries des Domaines. The cooperage has the capacity to manufacture 2,000 barrels per year, using oak from the Allier and Nivernais forests. Total production is 15,000 to 20,000 cases.
Yet despite the talk of tradition, there has been a recent changing of the guard. The three men who defined Lafite for the last four decades have moved on. Charles Chevallier has been replaced as technical director by Erik Kohler, while Jean-Guillaume Prats has replaced Christophe Salin as CEO. Meanwhile, Baron Eric de Rothschild’s daughter Saskia de Rothschild now fronts the firm, bolstered by degrees from Columbia and HEC. Commentator Jane Anson hopes that the new team don’t shift things around too much, yet it is difficult to deny that a new cellar is needed. Surely it is a matter of just a few years before it is built.
‘...As the wine shape-shifted over those years and each bottle held a different memory, Lafite’s grace, refinement and immaculate poise stood above the pack…’
The vineyards comprise 110 hectares, with 40 per cent dedicated to the Grand Vin, 50 per cent to Carruades and the rest, to the branded Légende de Pauillac. Lafite is the largest of the First Growths. Vineyards are comprised of 70 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 percent Merlot, three per cent Cabernet Franc and two per cent Petit Verdot, a slight increase in lieu of the challenges of a warmer climate. And yet the Grand Vin of Château Lafite is resolutely between 80 and 90 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards are divvied into three major sections, with 100 parcels in all. There are 50 hectares around the château, on either side of the D2 highway. Then there are 50 hectares planted on the Carruades plateau which, despite the name, contributes not a single grape to the eponymous second wine. While Carruades de Lafite has become phenomenally successful in its own right due to familial associations, this parcel is dedicated solely to Lafite. Its importance to the blend is evidenced by letters, still in existence, pleading that it not be sold to Mouton for fear of imparting a qualitative advantage. There are also vines adjacent and intermingled with those used for the wine of Chàteau Duhart Milon. Thirdly, there is a 4.5 hectare sluice of vineyard across the stream, in neighbouring Saint-Estèphe. This is known as la Caillava. This fruit is permitted as it was used in the production of the wine classified in 1855. In addition, there are 50 hectares dedicated to marshland and greenery, facilitating the grazing of cattle and a vast polyculture, suffusing an holistic aura with that of the aristocracy.
While there is ample sand, marl and limestone roiled through its soils, there is very little clay. And it is gravel that defines the wine of Lafite. Gravel that is dense and thick, serving as a colander against excess, a conduit of pungent mineral torque and a signature of iodine salinity, the mark of wines so close to the Gironde. There is none of the sticky clay that defines Latour’s geology, or the denser marls of Mouton that bestow a greater generosity to its wines. On average, Lafite’s vines are 40 years of age, but select parcels are considerably older. Petit Verdot dates back to the 1930’s, some Merlot back to 1886 and a portion of Cabernet, to 1922. Organic conversion was commenced in 2017 and completed by 2021. Vines younger than 20 years never contribute to the Grand Vin. About one per cent of the vines are replaced each year, mitigating senescence and the lesser quality fruit that results. There was once a Semillon-dominant white wine produced too, sold as generic Bordeaux AC. The last vintage was 1960.
Yet despite a reputation of discretion, by 2008 Lafite had become the most collectible of all Bordeaux. The irony was not lost on many commentators including yours truly. Its investments on home turf, farther south and as far afield as Chile (Los Vascos) and Argentina, with a collaborative project with Bodega Catena Zapata, served to accentuate its ambition. Its aggressive promotional tactics in the Chinese market, too, were paying dividends. There, Lafite’s most successful strategy was allegedly its product placement in the most highly rated Chinese soap opera. Lafite was consumed with relish by the main characters on screen and the growing Chinese upper class followed suit. This incited mass counterfeiting and in 2012, a seal was placed on all corks of Lafite and its second wine, Carruades Lafite. The veracity of the seals was verifiable on the official website. By 2011, however, pricing began to tumble. Vintages cherry-picked during the boom had fallen in value by 50 per cent. By 2013, prices began to stabilise again and Lafite’s whirlwind of promotion and investment seemed to calm.
Reflecting, Lafite’s grandeur is as much because of the amalgam of low yielding gravel soils and the confluence they find with a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon, as the châteaux’s illustrious track record of prodigiously age-worthy wines that result. Of course there was the scandal of Bill Koch’s lawsuit over the allegedly fraudulent Thomas Jefferson’s bottling, Lafite’s inextricable connection to the rise of the Chinese fine wine market, the spectre of a rakish collector and the spirits of celebrity devotees littered across its fabled past. Yet, on a personal note, Lafite seared itself into my memory while working as a sommelier in New York. I had tasted many of the notable vintages including the 1959, 1961, 1982 and the pixelated, power packed 1986. And yet it was 1976, an off-year, that charmed me. A friend of mine secured a few cases and was kind enough to share bottles over the course of my time living in Manhattan. As the wine shape-shifted over those years and each bottle held a different memory, Lafite’s grace, refinement and immaculate poise stood above the pack. Lafite is a wine that challenges in its youth, an aloof demeanour easily misinterpreted as a standoffishness. Yet it is this very demureness that metastasises into a winning charm with patience and the blessings of time. Lafite’s grandeur lies in that ineffable sense of compression before the explosion, when Lafite finally exhorts ‘I am ready.’ Or perhaps technical director Kohler describes it best as ‘a spectrum of flavours rather than a strong expression of any particular one.’