Game of shores

Ready to play the Game of Shores? From the mists of Sauternes to the terraces of Shandong, by way of Chile’s cooling winds and the sea air of the Corbières, each clue invites you to identify the body of water that lies closest to the vineyard.

Seven Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite estates. Seven unnamed bodies of water that have shaped them. For each clue, it’s up to you to guess the river, sea or ocean in question.

1. Misty in autumn, it flows into the Garonne

This small, cool tributary meets the warmer waters of the Garonne opposite the slopes of Sauternes. Their meeting creates the morning mists that encourage noble rot, Botrytis cinerea, the fungus that graces the grapes of Château Rieussec and the other estates of Sauternes. Can you name the tributary?

A) The Dordogne

B) The Ciron

C) The Noble Rôt

2. It runs through a Burgundian village built on ancient oyster fossils

Flowing through land more than 150 million years old, it brings cool air to the Chardonnay vines of Domaine William Fèvre in Chablis. It brings a welcome freshness in the heat of summer and a not-so-welcoming one in spring, when the vines begin to bud and frost threatens.

A) The Yonne

B) The Serein

C) The Chardonnet

3. Neither river nor sea

Formed where two rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean, it is the largest estuary in Europe. Our neighbouring estates in Pauillac, Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Duhart-Milon, have watched its tides come and go for centuries.

A) The Gironde

B) The English Channel

C) The Loire

4. At the gates of Paradise

It moves between the hills of Entre-deux-Mers, while our Château Paradis Casseuil looks out over its waters.

A) The Garonne

B) The Cas Seuil

C) The Paradisio

5. Our Corbières estate draws freshness from its sea air

It runs alongside Fontfroide, the Corbières massif where Domaine d’Aussières is nestled among more than 500 hectares of preserved natural landscape, only a quarter of which is planted with vines.

A) The Atlantic

B) The Mediterranean

C) The Sea of the Cathars

6. It cools the nights in our Chilean vineyard

Forty kilometres from its shores, our Chilean estate, Viña Los Vascos, benefits from its morning mists and cool afternoon winds, slowing the ripening of the grapes, patiently and naturally.

A) The Pacific Ocean

B) The Atlantic Ocean

C) Lake Titicaca

7. Its name comes from the colour of its sediments

On the Shandong Peninsula, in the Qiu Shan Valley, the group’s youngest estate, Domaine de Long Dai, looks towards it from its newly terraced slopes.

A) The Yellow Sea

B) The South China Sea

C) The Red Sea

Fancy another round?
Play ‘Mystery Grapes: Follow the Clues!’ or ‘Must You Taste It to Believe It?’