Outside of wine industry get-togethers and the banquet halls of the super rich, it is becoming increasingly rare to see a bottle of Lafite being opened for the sheer pleasure of drinking.
Lafite has become the most sought after wine of China’s newly rich, eager to build impressive collections quickly and with the buying power to do so.
Lafite has the advantage of tripping easily off the Chinese tongue and its owner, Baron Eric de Rothschild should be praised for his early and decisive recognition of this burgeoning new market.
Recently, a case of Lafite 2000, a wine still far from peak maturity, sold for £21,000 or nearly £2000 a bottle. Sotheby’s Hong Kong will sell a lot of 25 cases of Lafite 1982 for £80,000 per case.