The ROTHSCHILD LEGACY

A conversation with Saskia de Rothschild, scion of the famed banking and wine dynasty

- JARED PAUL STERN

At 33, Saskia de Rothschild is the youngest person currently leading a Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux estate, the legendary Château Lafite Rothschild, which has been in her family since 1868. She’s also the first-ever female chairwoman of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), the Rothschilds’ wine empire with its portfolio of eight prestigious wineries on three continents.

The world’s most expensive and sought-after Bordeaux, current Château Lafite Rothschild vintages cost around $700 a bottle, while highly-coveted bottles such as the 1982 sell for around $4,000 (according to Bloomberg). A former investigative reporter, Saskia, Lafite’s sixth generation winemaker, has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia and worked for the New York Times in Paris—skills that came in handy for her latest project, Château Lafite: The Almanac, a beautiful new book published by Flammarion.

With a foreword by her father, Baron Éric de Rothschild, who managed the estate from 1974-2018, the 600-plus page book is a comprehensive guide to Lafite’s 150 Rothschild vintages, illustrated with historical documents, press clippings, and photographs, and demonstrating the family’s desire to “combine deep respect for tradition with a commitment to evolve with the times, protecting Lafite’s singular, vibrant, and evolving legacy for the next 150 years.”