Château Lafite Rothschild

[1] Situated in the wine-producing village of Pauillac in the Médoc region to the north-west of Bordeaux, the estate was the property of Gombaud de Lafite in 1234.

[4] In the early 18th century, Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Ségur refined the wine-making techniques of the estate, and introduced his wines to the upper echelons of European society.

[6] Following the French Revolution, the period known as Reign of Terror led to the execution of Nicolas Pierre de Pichard on 30 June 1794, bringing an end to the Ségur family's ownership of the estate which became public property.

[7][8] At the 5 December 1985 Christie's auction, a new record price of approximately US$156,000 was paid for a bottle of wine – a 1787 Château Lafite which was thought to be owned by Thomas Jefferson.

[15] On 29 October 2010 the record was broken at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong – three bottles of 1869 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild were sold for HK$1.8M (US$232,692) each.

[16] In early November 2012, police in the city of Wenzhou, China, seized nearly 10,000 bottles of suspected counterfeit Château Lafite Rothschild.

A second Château Lafite Rothschild vineyard was established in the Chinese province of Shandong, where 250,000 vine stocks from France are planted on 30 hectares.