Lafite offers wine to France’s World Cup winners

Château Lafite Rothschild has offered up bottles of wine to the French national football team, following their triumph in the FIFA World Cup final in Russia.

Lafite Rothschild said that it has set aside ‘a couple’ of bottles from its 1998 vintage, which marks the last time France won the FIFA World Cup, that time on home soil.

France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow in yesterday’s World Cup final (15 July), watched by tens of millions of viewers around the world. The win sparked street parties in French cities and towns.

An estimated one million people joined a spontaneous party on the Champs Elysée in Paris on Sunday night (15 July) after the game.

Lafite tagged the French team on Instagram and said, ‘Let us know if you’d like a bottle of ’98 Château Lafite Rothschild to celebrate [with] – we’ve put a couple aside.’ The post said that it ‘saluted’ the team’s achievements at the Russia 2018 World Cup.

Decanter’s Jane Anson re-tasted Lafite 1998 a few weeks ago and rated it 94 points, praising its ongoing ‘vibrancy’.

See Jane Anson’s full recent review of Lafite Rothschild 1998

Lafite wasn’t the only wine producer to offer to help French footballers celebrate their success.

Each team member received a case of ‘Art Russe’ St-Emilion Grand Cru wine, made at Château La Grace Dieu Des Prieurs, after the match, according to Art Russe.

The wines, which were handed out by the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFR), also included reproductions of Russian artworks on their bottle labels.

Andrey Filatov, the founder of Art Russe, said, ‘We sincerely congratulate Didier Deschamps and all the players with a well-deserved and long-awaited victory.’