Best Wine in the World?: Lafite Rothchild

Photo credit: Glengarry wine stores in New Zealand

I once managed a wine importer in New York City that specializes in expensive French wines. Our best market was drug dealers in Miami, Florida. They bought mostly Lafite Rothchild and they kept the bottles (which can range up to $1000/bottle or more) in large refrigerators. Miami is hot and leaving them in your cigarette boat doesn’t end well...for the wines, at least.

So, why all the fuss about Lafite? I’m glad you asked. It was Napoleon’s fault.

Napoleon lll, Last Emperor of France, was a feisty fellow who was the nephew of the Napoleon you’re thinking about. In a curious echo of our current politics, he started out as President of the French Republic. When he couldn’t get re-elected he seized power and declared himself emperor.

One of things Napoleon lll managed to do, in between fighting Prussians and reconstructing Paris, was to authorize a commission to classify all the wines of France for “Exposition Universelle de Paris.” Paris was receiving visitors from all over the world, at the time.

The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 named Chateau Lafite Rothschild in the Pauillac Region of Bordeaux as the best wine in the world.

Not every single person in the world buys into that these days, especially if they live anywhere near Domaine de la Romanee Conti in Burgundy, France or the Rutherford Bench in Napa Valley, California. Be that as it may, the drug dealers of Miami went along with the opinion of the general public in coveting Lafite and purchased accordingly.

This video is a good introduction or refresher on how they make wines like Chateau Lafite in Bordeaux.