Decanter World Wine AwardsLafite '08 bottles to feature Chinese symbol
- Tuesday 26 October 2010
- Comments (8)
The symbol, which is considered especially lucky in China, will be on every bottle and magnum of Lafite 2008.
A spokesperson for Lafite owner Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) said she did not know what impact the move might have on the value of Lafite 2008 in China.
‘The shape of the symbol seems to offer a perfect representation of the slopes of the vineyard and commemorates the launch of our Chinese wine project,’ the spokesperson added.
‘We wanted to remind all those who will have the pleasure of drinking these wines in a few years of this exciting undertaking.’
Lafite is in partnership with CITIC, China’s largest state-owned investment company, to develop 25ha of vines on the Penglai peninsula in China’s Shandong province.
Some commentators have described the peninsula, about 800km north of Shanghai, as ‘China’s Bordeaux’.
Meanwhile, speculation that Château Mouton-Rothschild might choose a Chinese artist to design the label for its 2008 vintage sent the wine’s value soaring in late 2009.
Mouton is due to unveil its new label for 2008 at the end of this year.
The figure eight is considered so auspicious in Chinese culture that huge sums of money are paid for telephone numbers made up only of the number, while the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics began precisely at eight minutes and eight seconds past 8pm, on 8 August 2008.
Have your say!
Ivan To
December 03 17:47
They are having a hard time to pronounce CH RIEUSSEC so no point to put in number(8)at this present moment until the next marketing campaign.
In order to attract those mainland chinese to love the wines, 1st - easy to pronounce. 2nd - must be expensive as they like to show off.
They blindly follow what people do without knowing the story behind and they drink Lafite with cigarette
during the wine tasting.
Alan Rayne
November 30 10:59
I agree with the sentiment it is great marketing especially to the CHinese, and I wonder why they did not put it on Ch. RIEUSSEC that might help the sales of the magnificent but very underated wine from Sauternes
Steven Yip
November 10 08:35
Due to the high demand from China. This is just simply a marketing tool to push up the price of Lafite 2008.
Just imagine, if today China's situation is like 20 years ago. Do you think the chateau will add in this (8) or (?) in the bottle? I doubt so.
Awaiting for the next economy crisis to bring down the price of the wine.
The Lafite Bubble will definitely come in one day.
Cheers!
Rick Schofield
October 27 14:45
Why is Lafite especially attractive to the Chinese, even Carruades de Lafite?
They go for Lafite in any year. And I know 8 is their lucky number.
Does Lafite mean 8 in Chinese? Or is it pronounced like they say their 8?
And to what Chinese language is Lafite meaningful? Mandarin, Cantonese, etc?
Rick Schofield
Port Ewen, NY