Château Lafite, in Haut-Médoc, the premier grand cru of the Bordeaux region, is now the most famous vineyard in the world. The Americans are snapping it up, the Russians, who had brought it to the pinnacle before the October Revolution, are returning to it with the same ardour, and the Chinese are taking an extreme liking to it. This is nothing new. Since its creation three centuries ago, Lafite has inflamed connoisseurs. As soon as it was planted, the English - the first lovers of
Bordeaux since the Hundred Years' War - began vying for its wines, raising them to fabulous heights from the outset in the 1710s. Since then, the estate's reputation has grown and grown. Until, at the end of the 19th century, it became the glorious victim of massive fraud throughout Europe and North America. Acquired by Baron James de Rothschild in 1868 and kept in the family, Lafite, today as always, crowns the peak of the wave that is taking great wines - Bordeaux in particular - beyond their own myths. Lavishly illustrated, the book retraces the history of the château, covering its vineyards, winemaking, trading and tasting, as well as the terrain, analysing the different plots, the region, its fauna and flora. A chapter is also devoted to gastronomy, the delicate alchemy between dishes and the wines that accompany them.