Château Lafite Rothschild has a storied history, but the women running it are decidedly future-focused, says Sarah Adwalpalkar. Here, she reports from a day on the ground at this Pauillac First Growth.  

It’s an early spring morning in March 2023 and we’re rolling through the gates of Château Lafite Rothschild. The sun glints off the château’s weathervane, which bears the Rothschild family’s five-arrow symbol. I’m with noted photographer Chris Floyd and his crew (and no fewer than 10 bags of equipment). We’re just weeks away from the launch of Bordeaux 2022 En Primeur, and we’re here to meet some of the women running this renowned First Growth. 

Lafite is the jewel in the crown of the Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) group, the family portfolio of wineries that also includes nearby Ch. Duhart-Milon, Ch. L’Evangile in Pomerol and Ch. Rieussec in Sauternes – along with famed estates in the South of France, Argentina, Chile and China.

First impressions

As we arrive at Lafite, I’m struck by its quiet industrialism rather than its grandeur: groups of workers, mainly female, tend the vines; renovations are underway ahead of the upcoming En Primeur season.

We first meet with Manuela Brando, a self-effacing Columbian who oversees research and development here. She has been with the company for over 10 years. As she begins to speak, her knowledge is evident, as is her enthusiasm for safeguarding the estate for the future. 

The 2022 vintage brought extreme weather across all of Bordeaux. The year’s excessive heat and drought seem to be becoming the norm here. How, then, are Manuela and her team to combat such extremes in the future? 

Her most interesting answer for me relates to the work they are doing in planting non-native grape varieties and testing their potential to brave a scorching summer. Varieties from the South of France, Greece, Portugal and even Georgia have been planted in an experimental plot. The team will need to wait 10 years to see the fruits of their labour and to judge whether they could be viable options for future Bordeaux blends.

The Rothschilds have owned Lafite since 1868. I find it impressive that an estate of this age would go to such lengths to ensure consistently excellent wines. Manuela admits that it’s “a risk”. Clearly, it’s one that they are willing to take.

On safari

Saskia de Rothschild is the Chair of the family group, the first woman to have taken up the position in six generations. When we sit down with her, she speaks passionately about the need for diversification. They need to work differently in order to bridge the gap between now and the future, she believes. She has clearly inherited this passion from her father, Baron Eric de Rothschild, who had spearheaded the introduction of cows into the estate’s surrounding marshlands.

Being something of a cow-enthusiast myself, I’m keen to meet these famous vaches marines (roughly translated as “sea cows”, although these ones stay firmly on dry land). Saskia graciously obliges, jumping in the car with us to seek out the typically shy creatures. 

“This is like a safari!” she cheerfully notes as we glance at them through the trees.

The cows help to graze and maintain the marshland and promote biodiversity here. Their manure can be used for biodynamic treatments in the vineyard. The contrast between neat, elegant rows of vines and the rugged earthiness of sprawling marshland highlights to me how two seemingly distinct ideas can work in tandem.

The “invisible hand”

Our day at Lafite concludes with a tour of the chai circulaire, a concrete barrel-room designed by Ricardo Bofill and constructed in 1987. It’s a striking structure, entirely circular, punctuated with thick pillars and lined with wine barrels. The damp smell underground is comforting and full of promise for the vintage that lies ahead. 

Manuela comments on the “invisible hand” of the estate. It helps everything progress, she says, while remaining unnoticeable. This statement resonates with me, as in a world where greenwashing is increasingly prevalent and companies spar to demonstrate their sustainable credentials, understated and even invisible seem like the right strategy. 

Our day concludes as we send our drone out over the sunset hill which gives Lafite its name: the term fite means “mound” or “hillock” in historic French. It gives me a moment to ponder what Saskia and Manuela had mentioned: that “everything is related”. I watch how the footage spans the vineyards, the marshlands, meadows of wildflowers squeezed between the vines, and the château overseeing it all. 

Browse our range of wines for the cellar from Château Lafite Rothschild.

It was founded in 2017; it’s a baby among Scotch whisky distilleries. How, then, does whisky production at Lindores Abbey predate all others?

Lindores Abbey Distillery, built in 2017, sits nestled in a shallow valley just outside Newburgh in Fife. Overlooked by the image of the bear and ragged staff (an emblem of the Earls of Warwick) burned into the side of the adjacent Park Hill, chivalric and Caledonian history fills the air. Nowhere more so than in the ruins of the abbey from which the distillery takes its name.

Built in 1191 next to the River Tay, the abbey was inhabited by Benedictine monks from the Order of Tiron, France. During the Scottish Reformation, the Catholic abbey was ransacked and burnt down under the orders of John Knox. While much of its history was lost, the abbey bell is now in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh and many of the original construction stones were used to build the nearby town of Newburgh.

The current custodians of Lindores Abbey (distillery and abbey ruins), are Drew and Helen McKenzie Smith. Lindores Abbey Farm has been in Drew’s family since 1913 but it wasn’t until 2000 that the significance of those ruins “in the back garden” became totally clear.

That year, lauded beer and whisky writer Michael Jackson knocked on the farmhouse door and asked Drew’s father Ken if he could look around the ruins. After wandering around taking notes and the odd photograph, he disappeared without a word. The following year, his newly published book “Scotland and its Whiskies” and an accompanying note arrived at Lindores. The book’s section on the abbey begins: “For the whisky-lover, it is a pilgrimage.”

1494 and all that

It had transpired that recently translated 1494 tax records (known as The Exchequer Rolls) stated: “To Friar John Cor, 8 bolls of Malt, wherewith to make Aqua Vitae for King James IV”. Friar John Cor was one of Lindores’ monks. This remains the earliest written reference to whisky making in Scotland, hence Michael Jackson’s keen interest.

Latin for “water of life”, over time “aqua vitae” became “uisge beatha” in Scottish Gaelic, before eventually becoming the word we know now as “whisky”. In a nod to where it all began, an Aqua Vitae is still made here today. An unaged, malt-based spirit, it’s infused with natural botanicals including locally sourced pine and Douglas fir, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom.

Standing among the ruins of Lindores Abbey in early August, I got a sense of the significance of this place. After crossing the road from the distillery to the ruins, our guide for the day, Murray Stevenson, paused.

“Do you feel different at all?” he asked. Silence and perplexed faces answered him. I was considering disturbed spirits of former monks or a theological explanation.

“This road marks the border between the Lowlands and the Highlands,” Murray explained. “We’ve just crossed over into the Highlands, making Lindores Abbey the most northerly distillery in the Lowlands.” I suddenly felt the air take on a crisper edge.

A new era of distilling

In December 2017, distilling was once again taking place at Lindores Abbey and the first casks were filled. The new distillery was converted from farm buildings. Helen and Drew had started construction the previous year, not without heavily involving Dr Jim Swann, biologist, chemist and whisky oracle. Tragically, Jim died before the distillery opened, never seeing the results of his vast contribution.

The distillery uses barley from local farmers, adding an element of terroir to its whiskies. Distiller Gary Haggart ferments the barley in vessels called washbacks made from Douglas fir. The long fermentation and local barley produce a light and floral base spirit, ready for maturation.

Maturation casks include ex-Bourbon casks and so-called STR (shaved, toasted and recharred) wine casks. While Lindores Abbey doesn’t produce a peated whisky, ex-peat whisky casks are used to mature some of their drams – adding just enough peat character for enthusiasts of that category of Scotch.  

There is a house style here, full of character and texture – just what is needed for a young distillery to compete with well-established names. The MCDXCIV (1494) single malt was Lindores Abbey’s first release and is resplendent with notes of plump stone-fruit and crumbly fudge.  

The distinctively shaped bottle design at Lindores Abbey is drawn from the remains of a 12th century pillar found in the abbey ruins. As I walk past ancient abbey stones now incorporated into the new distillery buildings, I wonder what Friar John Cor would make of it all?  

At Berry Bros. & Rudd, our colleagues are passionate about the wines and spirits that we sell. We recently asked our team to tell us about the bottles they’ve been enjoying lately; from age-worthy Beaujolais to fruit-forward Crémant de Limoux, here’s what we’re drinking.

From Bordeaux to Bourgueil

2019 Bourgueil, Jour de Soif, Gauthier, Domaine du Bel Air, Loire 

Matt Winterton, Buying Assistant 

Domaine du Bel Air’s Jour de Soif was one of the first wines I bought after joining Berry Bros. & Rudd last year. Having lived in Bordeaux, I completely fell for that region and its wines, rarely looking elsewhere. When I returned to the UK, I took a step back from Bordeaux and delved into other countries and regions, trying new wines I wouldn’t normally have had access to. 

The Loire Valley as a region can be sometimes overlooked outside the famed villages of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. But beyond its most famous appellations, the Loire boasts a diverse and broad range of styles and grape varieties, yielding beautifully refined and concentrated wines. With its terroir, excellent modern viticulture and winemaking techniques, the region is quickly gaining the attention of enthusiasts who are starting to delve deeper. 

Jour de Soif is a fantastically energetic and bright Cabernet Franc from Bourgueil, just outside the city of Tours. It’s brimming with crunchy red cherries, cranberries and crushed violets, with the slightest hint of salinity. The fine, delicate tannins are complemented by a freshness that stimulates the palate and really makes the fruit shine. 

To my surprise, this wine was recommended by our Bordeaux Buyer Max Lalondrelle – who, it turns out, is also an advocate for the Loire. I can’t recommend this wine enough, for its quality and value; I urge you to give it a try. 

Bubbles for all occasions

Berry Bros. & Rudd Crémant de Limoux by Antech, Brut, Languedoc 

Issariya Morgan, Senior Copywriter 

This Crémant de Limoux is one of my favourite Own Selection wines – and one that my friends adore just as much as I do. It’s my go-to sparkling wine for everyday occasions, from pre-bowling sipping to long weekend lunches. 

It’s crafted by Maison Antech in the Languedoc region of Southern France, according to the “traditional method” of sparkling wine production. This means it’s made in exactly the same fashion as Champagne, offering excellent value for money.  

Made from a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Mauzac, it has a lightness and elegance that makes it easy to love. Vibrant notes of apple and pear, alongside a lovely but subtle biscuit note from the lees – it’s a fantastic choice for those who prefer dry, fruity styles of sparkling wine.  

Among my favourite food matches, I can recommend homemade vegetarian sausage rolls, a generous bowl of pasta stirred with wild garlic pesto, or a potato salad with a creamy mustard dressing. But a glass of this by itself, perfectly chilled, is a delicious treat, too.

An autumnal red 

2021 Pétalos, Descendientes de J. Palacios, Bierzo, Spain

Elisa De Luca, Content Manager

If, like me, you eagerly await the coming of cold autumnal days every year, you’ll probably be finding this October somewhat anticlimactic. So far – aside from a miserable spat of cold wind and rain in August – we have most definitely not had the weather for curling up indoors with a glass of red wine (one of my favourite parts of autumn). 

Luckily, an answer to this problem had arrived a few months earlier. At one of our welcome tastings for Cellar Plan members earlier this year, I was stationed on a table of Spanish wines. I browsed through the usual delights of Rioja and Ribera del Duero before arriving at this Mencia, the 2021 Petalos from Descendientes de J. Palacios. And wow. 

Equal parts juicy, spicy, herbal and aromatic, with heaps of wild plum and smoke flavours, this hails from north-west Spain’s Bierzo region. The 60-year-old vines are farmed biodynamically, and the wine has a real punch of intensity and flavour that will appeal to any red-wine lover – without being too much for an odd October heatwave. 

A slice of Southern France 

Le Soula, Trigone Rouge, Lot XX, Vin de France 

Olly Hallworth, Buying Assistant 

The wines of Le Soula have long held fond memories for me. I was first introduced to them when starting my wine career, in the South of France, not far from the city of Béziers. Here, I would spend weekends with friends, fire up the barbecue and share a bottle (or two), the idyllic views of the Pyrenees in the distance. 

A few weeks ago, I picked up a bottle of Le Soula’s Trigone Rouge on my way to a pizza night in South London. Given the time of year, I knew that this was, sadly, to be one of the year’s last alfresco dinners. 

Trigone is a multi-vintage cuvée. Lot XX is a blend of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages, with a good chunk of Carignan and Syrah leading the way. Harvested from old vines located 600 metres from the foothills of the Pyrenees, the wine retains such freshness and purity of fruit. Blackberries, wild strawberries and delicate floral notes shine through. Subtle tannins and great acidity made this the perfect match for the seemingly endless pizzas being paddled out of the wood-fired oven. 

There were no views of the Mediterranean this time. But it transported me back to warm summer evenings, open fires and friends in the South of France. 

Age-worthy Beaujolais 

2019 Moulin-à-Vent, La Rochelle, Olivier Merlin, Beaujolais

Will Wrightson, Customer Experience Manager 

Moulin-à-Vent is sometimes described as the “King of Beaujolais”. Of the 10 Beaujolais crus, it is the most atypical. Wines from Moulin-à-Vent are powerful, structured and can age beautifully. 

Indeed, Olivier Merlin’s La Rochelle is more in the vein of a fine Burgundy or even a Rhône. The La Rochelle vineyard is home to Moulin-à-Vent’s oldest vines. I had the pleasure of drinking the 2014 vintage last month and it was impeccable, though I’m here to sing the praises of the 2019 vintage.

The 2019 is still youthful but is starting to come into its own, and if you’re looking to heartier dishes as the nights draw in, this is a great stablemate. Pair with game, like duck or a big stew; the black cherry, dark bramble fruit and notes of olives will shine. Then come back and buy a case for your cellar and return to it in a few years.

The Scotch whisky industry has been built on a bedrock of blends. Yet single cask bottlings are becoming more prevalent. Barbara Drew MW explains what single casks are, and why they’re so special.  

Whisky, it’s said, is about the art of the blend. Around 90% of all Scotch whisky is blended whisky and there is great skill required to produce it. Blended whiskies are made up of spirits from different distilleries, created in stills of all shapes and sizes. These spirits are then aged for differing lengths of time in a multiplicity of casks. The resulting blend of up to 100 different whiskies leads to a liquid of depth, complexity and breadth. It takes decades for blenders to master their art and choosing, or training, a new blender is a nerve-wracking decision for any distillery. 

But even single malt whiskies – representing just a small proportion of overall Scotch whisky production – are blends. This could be a blend of different ages of whiskies, with spirits that have been sat gently ageing in cask for 20 years adding depth and complexity to spirits which are 15 years old. It could be a blend of different finishes to add complexity. Or simply a blend of multiple barrels to create a complex and layered spirit. The key is to maintain a classic house style, no matter whether a spirit is 40 years old, or 14 years old.  

So what, then, are we to make of single cask whiskies? Where do they sit in the great pantheon of Scotch whisky styles? And where is the skill in opening up a single cask and tipping it into a bottle? 

Tomatin 

I put these questions to Scott Adamson, blender and global brand ambassador for Tomatin, a beautiful distillery situated in the Highlands of Scotland, around 20 minutes north of Aviemore.  

This is a distillery that is no stranger to blends, once producing enormous volumes of mellow whisky, that provided the backbone of elegant blends such as Cutty Sark. In the 1980s though, as blended whisky fell somewhat from favour, they shifted their focus to single malts – the same beautiful liquid, but blended only with other casks of Tomatin and bottled under their own name.  

Despite the shift, the decades of expertise at Tomatin remained invaluable. They remain skilled, not just in blending, but in producing a spirit that is delightfully adaptable, taking to different casks and ageing periods with ease.  

At first glance then, a single-cask release seems at odds with this history and skill. But Scott disagrees. Whilst each cask provides an additional ingredient in the final whisky, there are a handful of casks which, when tasted, are absolutely complete. He stopped short of using the word perfect, but it seemed on the tip of his tongue.  

Finding these perfect casks that contain liquid that is in itself complex, rounded, full of character, expressive of the distillery and yet unique is certainly no easy task. Of the around 70,000 casks of whisky currently maturing in the warehouses at Tomatin, fewer than 50 were picked out last year as being special enough to warrant bottling as single casks. The skill required to identify those casks – to taste through, over the course of many weeks, the 70,000 casks and find those 50 standouts – is truly remarkable.  

What’s more remarkable is that each single cask is 100% unique. Whilst each shows the Tomatin character, they are also of their own making. Unique liquid, not to be found in any other bottle. They’re an opportunity to taste the style of the distillery, in perfect completeness. They’re a moment in time, and one that, once tasted, once finished, is gone forever.  

One such cask has been bottled exclusively for Berry Bros. & Rudd. Dating from 1995, it was bottled in June 2023, making the liquid 28 years old exactly. Aged in ex-Bourbon casks, the resulting spirit has a rich aroma of toffee popcorn and apples. The long ageing has brought out tropical notes too, and hints of dried mango. The spirit feels rich and smooth on the palate with the alcohol so seamlessly integrated it is barely noticeable. A whisper of sweetness appears on the finish and a hint of coconut. With water, the spirit opens up more citrus notes, with orange and lemon character.  

Tasting this whisky places me perfectly back in the Highlands. This may not be a blend, but it encapsulates the essence of everything Tomatin work towards. It tastes like the most magical blend of everything Tomatin do. Without any blending required.   

Read more of our articles on spirits here.