Our full name, were we to have a passeport, would be Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite. Not the briefest of names, we admit. But neither is our history.
We could begin all the way back on the 8th of August 1868, when Baron James de Rothschild chose a unique piece of land in Pauillac whose vineyards had proven themselves in exceptional wines. Or even back in 1234 when ‘Lafite’ first enters the history books.
But that’s a story for another time. What we want to talk about now is our family today.
For our personal family, it’s the sixth generation who now looks after our wines. When we talk about family – which happens a lot, because it runs through everything that we do – we mean something more than that. Something bigger.
We mean our family of vintners, who we’ve worked with through war and peace, fiery heatwave and candlelit frost.
We mean our family of vineyards, each distinct in place and personality, but sharing in the same spirit.
We mean the family of people who trust us to capture a moment in time, and terroir, whenever they open a bottle of our wine.
“From Bordeaux to Corbières, and from Chile to China, Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite is a close family of wine estates, each diverse in terroir and distinct in character, but all sharing in the same spirit.”
Spirit, by nature, is an unplaceable quality.
But if we were to put into a single word, ours comes down to balance.
The past & the future
We keep traditions alive – by carrying them forward, and allowing them to evolve. We inherit the wisdom of experience, without losing our curiosity for the new.
Timelessness, placed firmly within time
We’ve worked with the seasons for well over a century; the kind of permanence that only comes from embracing continuous change.
Nature’s hand & our own
Perhaps the greatest lesson nature gives us is humility; never domination, but conversation, collaboration.
Exacting standards & levity
We believe in balancing the rigorous demands of a working day with conviviality, warmth and the appreciation of what brings us together and what sets us apart.
“Gentle, low-intervention winemaking, has always been our way.”
Above all, our work is agricultural. We work with the land. Our wine depends on weather, on the slightest waves and shifts and indecisions of the climate.
Our terroirs have been entrusted to our care for just a brief season in history, and we must make each season count.
Gentle, low-intervention winemaking, characterised by defining touches, has always been our way; today, all our estates are in transition to certified organic status.
Beyond passion and patience, winemaking like this means existing in multiple time periods at once, because great wine in fifty years requires the right decisions today.
Winemaking like this means listening to, and protecting, the natural world that has been our companion since the day we began. And it means finding beauty in elements you can’t control, and hope in our common determination to take the vines carefully, curiously and tenderly into the future.
DBR Lafite, meet the family.