Château Lafon-Rochet: Vineyards
The vineyard in the 1960s comprised just 15 hectares of Merlot, so it is perhaps not surprising that the reputation of the wines had floundered. With a suitable program of planting the vineyard was expanded to nearly three times this size. Today there are 41 hectares of vineyards here, of which the vast majority surrounds the château. These vineyards sit on a gravel plateau which they share with the vineyards of near neighbours Château Cos d’Estournel and Château Cos Labory, both of which lie to the north-east. To the north-west sits Château Lilian-Ladouys, the first property in Bordeaux that was acquired by Jacky Lorenzetti. It is also worth noting that Château Lafite-Rothschild has 4.5 hectares of vines in St Estèphe, in a parcel adjacent to the vines of Château Lafon-Rochet.
To the south there is a marshy drainage ditch, the Jalle de Breuil, which separates the vineyards of St Estèphe from those of Pauillac. Meanwhile, further west, beyond a patch of woodland, are the vines and estates of the Haut-Médoc appellation; one notable property here is Château Larrivaux, owned and run by Bérangère Tesseron, Basile’s wife. This is where Basile will be focusing his efforts having departed Lafon-Rochet.
The vines have an average age of approximately 40 years, with the oldest vines having been planted in 1938. When I first visited some of the youngest vines on the property were planted in 1999, although there is an ongoing programme of replanting. Following the 2011 vintage the vines in front of the château, some of the oldest, were uprooted (leaving fallow land – as can be seen in the image on the first page of this profile) ready for replanting, and one other plot was similarly uprooted after the 2010 vintage. And when I called in during the primeurs in April 2024 more of the vines in front of the château had gone, the land pictured planted with vines (below) was also fallow, ready for replanting. Overseeing this work in the vineyard up until 2017 was Anaïs Maillet, but she has since been replaced by Thomas Peyruqueou.
