Château Lafite Rothschild cooperage

The house

The present cooperage at Lafite, the Tonnellerie des Domaines, was built in 1987. Its 5 coopers work all year and make 2,000 barrels for the properties of the Rothschild family, which has owned Château Lafite Rothschild since Baron James bought it in 1868. Duhart-Milon, in Pauillac, and Rieussec, in Sauternes, which the family added in 1962 and 1984, take their barrels from the same place.

The wood is French sessile oak, much of it from the forest of Tronçais, in the Allier, and from the Nivernais, with Fontainebleau, Châteauroux, Blois and Saint-Palais also among its origins. Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, set Tronçais aside in 1670 to grow timber for the ships of 200 years ahead. In 2023 the stave maker of the Rothschild estates was Guillaume Gauthier, a founder of Gauthier Frères and of the 3rd generation of stave makers in his family. He chooses trees usually 150 to 250 years old. For about 2 years the staves season in the open air, and then they rest 6 months indoors at Lafite.

The toast is set wine by wine. In 2023, under Sylvain Guiet, who manages the cooperage, Lafite had only a short, intense toast, so that no heavy aromas come from the wood. Rieussec had a longer, lower toast that reaches deeper into the oak, and Duhart-Milon a medium toast between the 2. The grand vin of 2023 spent 15 months in new French oak, and each barrel was tasted on its own before the final blend. Every barrel is numbered so that its wood can be traced, and each one for the grand vin carries a small plaque engraved with the crest of Château Lafite Rothschild.

At a glance

Kind

Château cooperage

Based in

Pauillac, at Château Lafite Rothschild

Founded

1987, the present cooperage

Owner

Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), of the Rothschild family, at Lafite since 1868

Direction

Sylvain Guiet, cooperage manager, 2023

In the record

Barrels for Lafite, Duhart-Milon and Rieussec, each with its own toast, 2023