Michael Broadbent rated it highly from the outset, and his subsequent notes remarked on its fragrance and slow evolution. In terms of red Bordeaux, or claret as it is also referred to by the British, there are no greater wines than the five chteaux referred to as the first growths: Chteau Lafite-Rothschild, Chteau Latour, Chteau Margaux, Chteau Haut-Brion and Chteau Mouton Rothschild. It was predicted to earn about $666 a bottle, assuming there were buyers. Lafite in particular has maintained a youthful character, developing harmony as it ages. Acidities were fairly low, but the best wines, such as Lafite, had sufficient tannic grip and structure to ensure a long, interesting life. Since then, Parker's reputation has grown, his following has grown, and his influence has grown. Baron Eric de Rothschild, the current manager, was already running Lafite in 1982. Discover what else your investment offers. The unusually warm growing season resulted in grapes of perfect ripeness and enormous concentration and richness. At the beginning of the 18th century Lafites wine was sold in London, where it was reported to be a favourite of the Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, who was reputed to have purchased barrels of 1732 and 1733. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. A nearly two-century-old bottle of Chateau Lafite, believed to have been part of an order set aside for Thomas Jefferson, commanded $156,450 today at an auction here. Within the five rarefied first growths, Lafite is perhaps the wine with the best reputation for quality and longevity, commanding correspondingly high prices. The Lafite Rothschild vineyards in the Bordeaux region of France produce a wide range of red, white, and ros wines. The Clockwork Building, 45 Beavor Lane, London W6 9AR, Reg Company No. Offered in The Treasury: Finest Wines from a Peerless Collection on 29 September 2022 at Christies in London. The harvest began early, on 16 September. In China the name Lafite has the most extraordinary and unexpected resonance. He knew the number eight is considered extremely lucky in Chinese culture, so hed arranged to have the Chinese symbol for the 8 in 2008 , discreetly engraved in the lucky color red, just above the label. The night had turned into a bidding frenzy, with price after price shattered. It became the most expensive wine ever sold when the hammer went down at the final price of $233,972. The significant role played by bitcoin for businesses! Brand Even the best Bordeaux only lasts around 50 years, so why the incredible price tag for this one in 1985? ). The 2008 was a good, but not great, vintage and the scores it had achieved from the all-important wine critics reflected that. For power there are other chteaux, but for elegance and finesse, then Lafite should be your wine. takes place, to which wine merchants and journalists are invited to taste the wine while its still in the barrel. When the hammer came down on the extraordinary sale of a bottle of 1869 Chteau Lafite, history was made. The coveted title of most expensive Champagne is constantly on the move, claimed by just two other vintages during the last decade. This week's news roundup covers all the major themes romance, money and crime. More shipping infoShipping info, Please allow 20 days for delivery in US. So drinking a bottle of 1982 Lafite Rothschild meant you were enjoying the best wine made, and if you in turn gave a bottle as a gift . If this first auction day failed, it forecast doom for the chteaux offering their wines on subsequent days. These nuances continue to evolve and change through the wines long life and the type of bottle format will also influence this evolution, as the general rule is that the larger the format the slower the evolution due to less oxygen compared to the volume of wine, which means those lucky enough to have magnums, double-magnums, jeroboams or imperials of Lafite can enjoy their wines over a longer drinking window period. [2] In the 17th century, the property of Chteau Lafite was purchased by the Sgur family, including the 16th century manor house that still stands. Photo courtesy of DBR Lafite. Regardless of whether the Lafite is in a bottle or a magnum, it should be included in your fine wine collection. Wine-Searcher's historical data and benchmark analysis provides trustworthy and valuable insights into likely market trends. The Premier Cru ponzi scheme has left thousands out of pocket, but there may be a glimmer of hope. Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, 1941 17,250. Manage Cookies Accept & Continue. The bottles had been shipped directly from Lafites own cellars; among them, a bottle of 1869 Lafite, its price estimated at $8,000. It simply oozes class. The price of other Bordeaux wines, Since then, the overall Chinese wine market has become globally significant. Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, 1787 109,300. Before long he was known as the "Wine Prince", and the wine of Chteau Lafite called "The King's Wine" thanks to the influential support of the Marchal de Richelieu. Posted in: Chteau Lafite in Bordeaux. [17] In 2019, the estate debuted its first vintage from its Domaine de Long Dai winery in Shandong. Wine has a proven track record of returns and resilience in an unstable market. Its vines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Marselan. It was October 2010, and auctioneer Jamie Ritchie of Sothebys was in the room, preparing to open the bidding on top wines of Bordeaux. Robert Parker said the wine reveals considerable tannin as well as amazing, atypical power and concentration for Lafite, and rated it 100. Half of those cases went to China. Phone: +254 727 612 142. The winning bid was by far the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine. Good luck getting hold of a bottle, though, the vintage is available in maddeningly small quantities. Unfinished and not yet bottled. Find out more about the people who make it work. Discover our range of fine wines from around the world. They are deeply-coloured and have intense fruity aromas. The 2017 vintage is a major success for the dry white wines of Bordeaux, which are clearly superior to 2015 and 2016. Learn More >, It was October 2010, and auctioneer Jamie Ritchie of Sothebys was in the room, preparing to open the bidding on top wines of Bordeaux. When it went for $233,972, it became the most expensive wine ever sold. Perhaps spurred on by the enthusiasm of the proprietors, the press and trade mostly reacted very positively, and 1982 was soon regarded as a blue-chip vintage, confirmed by steadily rising prices for the top wines. Mixed formats support both near- and long-term drinking. The palate is wonderfully concentrated and sonorous; it seems to extend in a column of dense black fruit. Firstly, there is the 1982 vintage. Investing in wine could be your smartest investment yet. Discover how your secure fine wine investment is stored. Sold in 2004, this is regarded as one of the most expensive American wines ever sold. 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac, France, Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac, France. A second Chteau Lafite Rothschild vineyard was established in the Chinese province of Shandong, where 250,000 vine stocks from France are planted on 30 hectares. Chateau Margaux creeps into the top 10 again with its limited edition 12-litre 2009 vintage. With a surprisingly clever search engine alongside bottle reviews and articles from trusted voices in wine, youre just a click and a clink away from your new favorite bottle. Simply put it, it's just so good! The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America have claimed teenagers are buying wine online. 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Amongst these Pauillac wines, Lafite has always held a particular allure. Annual production ranges between 15,000 to 20,000 cases, depending on the vintage. And Salin had another plan in motion. Chteau Lafite-Rothschild 2005. This lengthy aging process adds to the cost of the wine. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Share Your Design Ideas, New JerseysMurphy Defends $10 Billion Rainy Day Fund as States Economy Slows, This Week in Crypto: Ukraine War, Marathon Digital, FTX. 03606414. There is a deep seam of black plum and liquorice with some nuances of minerals and earth, but this is deep, dense and savoury. In the white corner by which one generally means Sauternes the best vintages years are 2015, 2014, 2011 and 2009. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Lafite lies at the northern end of Pauillac. Within the five rarefied first growths, Lafite is perhaps the wine with the best reputation for quality and longevity, commanding correspondingly high prices. Price starts low and is sold to the highest bidder. In-stock and available for sale at the price shown. This particular bottle had the initial Th.J etched into it the markings of enthusiastic oenophile Thomas Jefferson. Lafite is approachable in youth with a beautiful fragrant fruit character, however it will be fascinating to taste their younger vintages, such as 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016 when they are fully matured. And the owners of Lafite's range of basic Bordeaux generic wines called Lgende sell . When young, it is really difficult to understand despite being more . This bottle was a Bordeaux, a 1787 Chateau Lafite, and, according to The Guinness Book of World Records, 18 years later it still is the world's most expensive bottle of wine.Its great age alone . Wine investment insights delivered straight into your inbox weekly. In Bordeaux, as almost anywhere else in the world of fine wine, wines get more expensive as they get older, and that effect accelerates the older the wine becomes. (Some up north on the left bank are even mentioning 2015). Direct from the producer, in-stock and available for sale at the price shown. The chteaux take these reactions into account when they come up with the wines release price. But it was a small market, complicated by the way that top Bordeaux is sold: Bordeauxs custom is to sell its wines two years before they are bottled. Ritchie took his place and the bidding began. So, what makes Lafite wine so expensive? We have well known master distiller in Canada and the USA, also installation team in North America, and our own researching department and factory, which assure that we can provide high quality distillation equipment for our customers. No. Lafite only produces a few thousand cases of wine each year, which drives up the price. Chteau Lafite Rothschild has a rich and fascinating history. It was an easy harvest that saw an early and large crop, and in the vat rooms they say, it smelt of hot fruit jam. Finally, the legend of Lafite '82 is shared by those in the community: first a group of Hong Kong tycoons started drinking it, when it was considered a status symbol to drink Lafite, and choosing an '82 Lafite was a reflection of taste; then it became popular among a group of Wenzhou businessmen living in Europe to drink a wine called Lafite, and now it is the businessmen from Zhejiang, in addition to Wenzhou, who are starting to speculate on Lafite '82. But what happened that night wasnt just a coup for Lafite. [20] Prices for Carruades de Lafite rose dramatically due in part to Chinese demand, with the prices of its 2005 and 2000 vintage fetching over 10,000 per case. Stored in bonded warehouse with duty and sales tax suspended. Three bottles of Chteau Lafite-Rothschild 1869 sold for HK$1.8 million each. From Barolo to Bordeaux, these wines are steeped in tradition. In 1989, the bottle collided with a tray at a wine dinner in New York, and win merchant William Sokolin scooped $225,000 (157,200) from the insurance (although he had originally sought out a massive half a million). (2002) Similar colour, but has retained more depth at core. A bottle of Lafite can cost upwards of $500, making it one of the most expensive wines on the market. Within the five rarefied first growths, Lafite is perhaps the wine with the best reputation for quality and longevity, commanding correspondingly high prices. The chteaux take these reactions into account when they come up with the wines release price. The 2008 was a good, but not great, vintage and the scores it had achieved from the all-important wine critics reflected that. - Dusseldorf - Germany. The grapes would have been picked by hand, selected in the vineyard, and brought to the winery for destemming and fermentation in large wooden vats (stainless steel tanks were only installed in 1988). The fresh wine was then aged in new barriques, produced at Lafites own cooperage, for almost two years before bottling. The wineries of SLO Wine Country boast an average distance of just five miles from the Pacific Ocean, resulting in prevailing marine conditions that are among the most pronounced of any wine region in California. It is considered by some to be the best wine to come out of Bordeaux. Chteau Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac, France, Get the best stories from Christies.com in a weekly email, *We will never sell or rent your information. I was so happy that day! In 2011, he moved forward with planting grapes in Chinas Shandong Province and soon after built a new winery named Long Dai. Billed by many as the finest wine ever produced by the estate, only six bottles have been made, and one was sold to an Asian buyer in Dubai in 2013 for an eye-watering 122,380. Four different kinds of cryptocurrencies you should know. It was rated second class after being classified as Deuxime Grand Cru in 1855. The consumer price index jumped 6.8% from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 1982, as prices surged for staples such as food and gasoline, new and used cars, rent and physicians' services . Mr. Liu put the price of a bottle of 1982 Lafite at about 60,000 yuan or $9,500 (taxes tend to make wine more expensive in China than in other markets) -- and he clearly expected Maotai to. Cult Wines is proudly invested in offsetting carbon emissions through dedicated projects around the world, championing sustainability, supporting ethical practices and actively contributing to the future of the wine industry with impactful initiatives. The Global Financial Crisis was still in full swing, and collectors across the world, including in the all-important U.S. market, had abandoned expensive wines. A single night in Hong Kong in 2010 proved a turning point in the history of wine. The 1982, considered one of the best vintages of last century . The purity of fruit here really pushes through to the finish. The best wines, which Lafite is unquestionably in that category also have a freshness and vibrancy to balance the matured bouquet. Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982 Cheval Blanc 1982 Petrus 1982. Within the five rarefied first growths, Lafite is perhaps the wine with the best reputation for quality and longevity, commanding correspondingly high prices. Every year, a different artist is commissioned by the winery. The wine is typically aged for at least 18 months, and sometimes up to 24 months, before it is released. At the time the sale set a record for the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction, clocking up a whopping $29,000 per glass! It was not until 1983 that Charles Chevallier became Lafites deputy technical director; he later became technical manager of not only Lafite but the other properties - Rieussec, Duhart-Milon and Evangile that form part of the group. Offered in The Treasury: Finest Wines from a Peerless Collection on 29 September 2022 at Christies in London. The estate, which is owned and operated by the family, produces a wide range of wines, including red, white, and ros. Salin had not only helped open up the Chinese market for fine wines, he was now helping to open Western markets to prestige wines made in China. There is a deep seam of black plum and liquorice with some nuances of minerals and earth, but this is deep, dense and savoury. Over time, the tannins loose a lot of the fight in them as the remain in an anaerobic environment, and mellow. French wine production from the 2017 harvest will fall to historic lows due to damage from spring frosts, officials have estimated. The 1982 Lafite-Rothschild is a wine I have drunk several times, though maybe this is the first time in magnum. [3] Although vines almost certainly already existed on the site, around 1680, Jacques de Sgur planted the majority of the vineyard. Deep in colour, it has a classic Pauillac nose with intense black fruit mixed with pencil shavings and black truffles. Trinken/lagern +40 Jahre. Christoph Salin. Because saliva builds up in the mouth all day, it can alter the taste of wine. Why has it managed to have such a high popularity in the country? Lafite was one of five wine-producing chateaus of Bordeaux originally awarded First Growth status in the 1855 Classification. Amazon Pauses Construction on Second Headquarters in Virginia as It Cuts Jobs, Stock Traders Are Ignoring Blaring Bond Alarms, iPhone Maker Plans $700 Million India Plant in Shift From China, Russia Is Getting Around Sanctions to Secure Supply of Key Chips for War. A 200-year-old bottle of 1811 Chateau dYquem was sold by The Antique Wine Company in London, to a private collector who now displays the wine in his restaurant in Bali in a bullet-proof, temperature-controlled showcase. This is not a bad thing, but it is slightly different. Indeed, some criticised the vintage at the time for an almost Napa-like (thus atypical) opulence and predicted a short life for the wines. Across all vintages Lafite Rothschild is one of the most expensive wines in the world, with the average price per 750 ml bottle reaching $911.. What year is the most expensive Lafite? It is considered by some to be the best wine to come out of Bordeaux. Lafite is blessed with a fantastic terroir near to the Gironde estuary in the northern part of Pauillac, close to the border with St-Estphe. This was an headline vintage of outstanding quality throughout Bordeaux, with ripeness levels not seen for many years. The 1982 vintage is one of the best wines I have had the privilege to taste when it is on song, with impressive concentration of cassis fruit character with the classic cedar and cigar box aromatics, supremely well balanced and the finish went on and on a truly impressive wine! More importantly, Chinese consumption caused Bordeaux prices to rise so high, that it priced many of its traditional British and American fans out of the market. View our latest reports to see how the fine wine market is doing. Fourth, Lafite is one of the most prestigious wine producers in the world. The designations remain in force today, putting Lafite at the pinnacle of Bordeaux. So, now you know why the '82 Lafite is so expensive, right? Or youre an unabashed cork dork hunting for that Slovenian stunner you sipped on vacation. The history of Chteau Lafite Rothschild is rich and fascinating. Covid has seen a lot of unspent wealth build up and wine is reaping the benefits. The wines have a vibrant acidity and a firm tannic structure which enables the wines to age gracefully over many decades in the successful vintages. 6 bottles per lot. Price. [4], In the early 18th century, Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Sgur refined the wine-making techniques of the estate, and introduced his wines to the upper echelons of European society. Yes, take me to the Asia edition GB 129 9514 84 | AWRS No. drinkable). During the ageing period, the wine would have been regularly racked and then fined before bottling. Talk about opening with a bang! Should go on for decades. Estimate: 3,0004,000. Bloomberg Best features the best stories of the day from Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television, and 120 countries around the world. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. That is certainly the case with the 1982 Lafite. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}451330N 04623W / 45.22500N 0.77306W / 45.22500; -0.77306. 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac, France Avg Price (ex-tax) $ 4,076 / 750ml Red - Savory and Classic 4.5 from 43 User Ratings 95 / 100 from 13 Critic Reviews All 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Prices Profile Reviews Vintages Analytics 194 Prices Compact view Acker Merrall & Condit Auction USA: (NY) New York Within the five rarefied first growths, Lafite is perhaps the wine with the best reputation for quality and longevity, commanding correspondingly high prices. A case of 1982 Chateau Lafite helped Christie's International raise $819,715 in its first exclusively online wine auction yesterday. Slightly high-toned, highly nuanced nose of currant, roasted meat, cedar, marzipan, smoke . With his camera, James Molesworth looks at the region known as the Left Bank of France for its prime Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. The grape varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon (70 per cent), Merlot (25 per cent), Cabernet Franc (3 per cent) and Petit Verdot (2 per cent).