Welcome to the first edition of our Journal.
This issue: a recipe, a word or a label, a wine, a vocation, a reinvention, a great or a small story… Everything starts with its own roots.
Common Roots: Views of Lafite
Braiding our willows to create new perspectives.
Once a year, we invite a photographer to interpret Château Lafite Rothschild. In 2023, we welcomed Finnish artist Anti Laitinen.
Hard Graft
A thrillerish tale of clones, scions, chimeras and omega cuts.
Vine grafting is the close-to-magical technique of fusing a new vine cutting to an old vinestock to create a genetically-compound new plant.
A question of etiquette
A family tree of Lafite labels.
Why not join us on a little label tour, from first to latest: via Bombay, Supreme, and a light touch of make-believe.
The last Clémenceau
A Family History
Jérôme Clémenceau is the machinery supervisor at Lafite, and will be the last of his family to work for DBR Lafite. Conversation with Saskia de Rothschild.
Roots Manoeuvre
Roots around roots
A herbarium (and arboretum) of our vine’s most important subterranean neighbours.
Roots to be Savoured
Chef Jean-Michel Lafarge’s stew of forgotten vegetables
At Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite, it is impossible to talk about “roots” without going through the kitchen.
Origin Stories
A short route through some etymological roots
We’ve been digging for root words – words that give origin to others. Root covers a lot of ground, offering meanings whose tendrils we’ve attempted to follow.
Uprooting
Timing is everything
What prompts the decision to uproot a vine? How does it work? A discussion with Eric Kohler, technical director of Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Duhart-Milon.
Assemblage
A short cut through some scenic roots
Different notes from different folks, tugged from the earth of the same theme, where we hope each sip has a certain body…
At the roots of Château Lafite Rothschild
A fiction of the first day of Baron James de Rothschild in Pauillac
On September 7, 1868, Le Constitutionnel wrote: “Baron James de Rothschild has left Paris for Château Laffitte, Médoc, which he has just acquired.” After that? We asked the novelist and poet Bernard Chambaz to slip into the shoes – and mind – of the Baron.