‘Wineglitz’ does act as an online paparazzi at times, especially if it involves international celebrities and a prestigious wine. Wine and Glitz must be reported, I say !!
On their 19th wedding anniversary, star couple David and Victoria Beckham enjoyed a celebratory meal over a vintage bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1990 in Paris.
Both David and Victoria posted pictures of their personal celebration on Instagram duly captioned as ‘special wine for a special day’ (The expensive wine could be seen in the background of a photograph).
Posh and Becks, as the two are called, married on July 4, 1999 at the height of David’s football career and equally immense popularity of Victoria, as part of The Spice Girls. Some details of the wine are as following.
The Estate – Château Lafite is a wine estate in France, owned by the Rothschild family. It was one of four wine-producing châteaux of Bordeaux originally awarded First Growth status in the 1855 Classification and since then it has been a consistently producing one of the world’s most expensive red wines (Wikipedia).
The Wine: Château Lafite 1990 – It is a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc. The growing season in the vineyards in 1990 saw a cold April but a hot and wet May and this resulted in a good flowering on the vines. The harvest took place in excellent climatic conditions and the yield was abundant and of outstanding quality.
Winemaker Notes – “We had a plentiful harvest, of high quality. The climatic conditions were good for the harvest. Darkly colored, fine nose and of high complexity – berry fruit aroma, smoke, leather spices and a touch of oak. First impression is that this wine attacks frankly in the mouth but reveals to be elegant, very tight tannins, fine ripened fruits, luxurious texture”
Critical Acclaim (excerpts)
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – “…the 1990 Lafite possesses some firmness and performs like a late adolescent in terms of its evolution, it boasts gorgeous aromas of cedar, tobacco leaf, cassis, and lead pencil shavings…” Rated 96
Wine Spectator – “Very serious fruit, with juicy berry, tobacco and cedar character. Slightly more body than the 1989, but they are very close in character. I would give this a little more time” Rated 95
Quite interestingly the estate was in news again ten days later. And this time it was when France won FIFA2018 World Cup on 15th July. Château Lafite wrote on its Instagram that it had “put a couple of bottles aside” of the estate’s 1998 vintage for the winning team. I will be covering that in my post next week. Cheers.