Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 2015

When Baron James Mayer de Rothschild purchased this estate at auction in 1868 for 4.4 million francs, the sale included a historic dérogation permitting a 4.5-hectare Cabernet Sauvignon plot in Saint-Estèphe's lieu-dit Blanquet to be vinified into the Pauillac Grand Vin — a regulatory anomaly no other First Growth holds and one that quietly broadens Lafite's aromatic register to this day.

The vineyard sits at the northern extreme of Pauillac, where up to 10 metres of deep fine gravel — quaternary alluvial deposits over tertiary limestone — forces vine roots deep, suppressing vigour and concentrating flavour while the Gironde estuary moderates diurnal swings. The oldest plot, La Gravière, was planted in 1886; Grand Vin parcels average ~45 years of age, all vines exceeding 20 years.

Grapes are double-sorted — manually in the vineyard, then optically at the winery — before a ~5-day cold pre-fermentation maceration. Alcoholic fermentation proceeds across 66 temperature-controlled vats (oak, stainless, concrete) at 28–30°C, parcel by parcel, with total maceration of 20–22 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs naturally in small stainless foudres; the Grand Vin selection is finalised the following March. Aging runs 18–20 months in 100% new French oak barriques produced at La Tonnellerie des Domaines, Lafite's own on-estate cooperage — a level of oak-character control unmatched among the Médoc First Growths.

The 2015 vintage delivered a warm, dry summer with well-timed September rains that preserved freshness in the Cabernet Sauvignon, yielding a wine of characteristic Lafite cedar and graphite precision alongside darker, sun-ripened fruit; drinking window extends comfortably to 2050.