"Lafite has a soul, a beautiful soul, tender and generous. Lafite changes the earth into a dream. Lafite is harmony, harmony between nature and man, because without our wonderful winegrowers, nothing would be done. (Baron Eric de Rothschild) There can only be one at the top: And the first to be named on perhaps the most famous wine ranking list in the world - the Bordeaux classification from 1855 - was Château Lafite from Pauillac. Only four wineries (Lafite, Margaux, Latour and Haut-Brion) climbed to the top of the pyramid and received the title "Premier Cru Classé". But long before that, word had spread about the legendary quality of Lafite wines from the Médoc. Perhaps the most beautiful anecdote: a doctor from Bordeaux prescribed a bottle of Lafite to Marshal Richelieu (1696-1788) as the "most pleasant of all tonics." And when Richelieu returned to the Paris court, King Louis XV (1710-1774) remarked that his marshal "looked 25 years younger than before he left." It's crystal clear, that's what was given to the king from that moment on. The vineyard comprises three main areas: the slopes around the Château, the plateau of Carruades to the west and a 4.5 ha plot in the neighboring commune of Saint-Estèphe. The surface area is 112 ha, it is a fine gravelly soil, deep, mixed with aeolian sands on a tertiary limestone subsoil, well drained and well exposed. The grape varieties are cabernet sauvignon (70%), merlot (25%), cabernet franc (3%) and petit verdot (2%). The average age of the vines is 39 years, but it should be noted that vines less than 10 years old are not included in the grand vin, which means that the average age of the vines producing the grand vin is around 45 years. The oldest parcel, called "La Gravière", was planted in 1886.