Saskia de Rothschild

Revolutionary packaging design When then 31-year-old Saskia de Rothschild took over Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) in 2018, she made Bordeaux history as the youngest person to lead a first growth. Then, last year, she also became the first female CEO of DBR in its 150-year history. She’s accomplished much at the company’s five Bordeaux châteaux, including the 2021 publication of Château Lafite: The Almanac (£125 Flammarion). Modelled on a farmer’s almanac, it’s like a family photo album – a huge departure from the boring format and dull prose of traditional château books.

One splashy innovation is from Château Rieussec in Sauternes: a new bottle design, which debuted with the great 2019 vintage. Sweet wines are seriously out of fashion, and de Rothschild says the objective of the bottle was ‘to get consumers to completely change their perception’. The packaging (pictured here) moves away from ‘the codes of wine bottles’. It’s designed by Swiss company Big Game, using opaque 95% recycled Wild Glass by Spanish glassmaker Estal, with a bright yellow colour-block crown logo on the front and a replaceable cork to remind wine lovers that Rieussec can be kept in the fridge for a month once opened.

De Rothschild says she hasn’t moved fast, reminding me that the conversion to organic farming at all their French estates started a decade ago with trials. Château L’Evangile in Pomerol is already certified organic, and the others are in conversion. Lafite has an agroforestry programme underway.

‘The decisions we take today are shaping the way we’ll make wine in 50 years, so it is our responsibility to take our time,’ she says.