WINE Saskia de Rothschild

After interviewing prison inmates and filming American women soldiers in Afghanistan, SASKIA DE ROTHSCHILD, a former journalist for The New York Times and still only 32, is now the head of arguably the greatest wine name on Earth, Château Lafite-Rothschil

Whatever I do, I get to the bottom of it,” says Saskia de Rothschild. The aristocratic 32-year-old winemaker has been telling me what it’s like to interview prison inmates for a month in the Ivory Coast, track down dictators in West Africa for The New York Times and film an investigative documentary on American women soldiers in Afghanistan. We haven’t even touched on the subject of wine yet.

Of course, everyone who makes the transition into the wine world has a story to tell. Art historians become learned scholars of obscure Italian grape varieties, jaded rockers hang up their guitars to make funky Argentine Malbec. Yet this journalist-turned-winemaker happens to be taking over the reins of arguably the greatest wine estate on earth, Château Lafite Rothschild.

“Once people are aware you know what you’re talking about, it’s easy,” she tells me, laughing, though she takes her job as the head of the famous first-growth Bordeaux and vast global wine company very seriously. “That’s why I went back to education and got a Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology (Bordeaux). I needed to understand everything.”

Rothschild is the youngest person currently heading a first growth. She’s also the first female chairman of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR), the parent company of Lafite and a host of other estates.

The famous Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 placed Lafite first out of all the region’s Premier Crus, and it was among Thomas Jefferson’s favourites. With origins dating back to medieval times, the chateau was purchased in 1868 by James de Rothschild. Some say it was his intention, as a member of the French side of the banking dynasty, to outdo his nephew, Nathaniel de Rothschild, who’d just bought neighbouring Mouton Rothschild, also in