Pre-Phylloxera Wines & Château Lafite
August 9, 2025
Raj Vaidya
Over the course of my career as a sommelier I have had some amazing opportunities to taste some of the rarest bottles one can imagine, lucky guy that I am. I am keenly aware of how special these opportunities have been, but especially so when the wines and bottles have been examples of wines made from vineyards before the plight of the phylloxera aphid that caused the vines to be uprooted and replanted on grafts to American rootstock.
The effects of this aphid were first noticed around the 1870’s in central France, where the vineyards were decimated as this foreign creature, imported from America, began to feed on the roots of the vines. By the end of the 19th century, this blight had spread all over Europe and the few vineyards that survived were rendered quite sick, holding on but producing less and less wine, as vine upon vine succumbed to certain demise. By the late 1870’s, it had been theorized that grafting the European genetics onto American vine varieties’ roots was a solution; since the pest existed in the Americas alongside American vines without killing them, it was correctly suggested that the roots of these varieties were resistant to the aphid. Large scale grafting projects began around 1881, and over the subsequent 30 years the vineyards of Europe slowly recovered.
The prettiest ungrafted Romanée-Conti I have ever tasted.
Prior to 1879 or so, it is safe to say that all wines from European vineyards were ungrafted. From that point on it requires some knowledge of the individual château or domaine or lieux-dit as applies, case by case, to know when the grafting took place. Some famous vineyards remained ungrafted well into the 20th century, most famously Romanée-Conti, which was finally replanted as grafts after the 1945 harvest. I have been lucky beyond my wildest dreams to have tasted that wine twice, both occasions in 2007, and it remains one of the most mind blowing wines in my experience. The most recent experience I’ve had with pre-grafted Romanée-Conti was a phenomenal bottle of 1935 tasted in October last year, a delicate and highly aromatic wine which had tremendous length and a distinctive menthol-like element on the palate.
Several things stand out as unique amongst ungrafted or pre-phylloxera wines, key amongst them the wildness of the aromatics and the intensity of the tannins. The former of these two was on display with that menthol note in the RC, the latter less so (perhaps on account of it having been a less ripe vintage?).
2 pre-phylloxera bottles recently released from the cellars at Bouchard.
This past July I had the opportunity to taste some 1865 reds from Bouchard, and the best of the lot was Chambertin Grand Cru, which at that era was likely purchased from the Camus family holdings. The wine’s tannin level was astounding, manifesting as a textural component which kept the wine’s impression on my palate for what seemed like a lifetime. I was still able to taste the complexity and definition of the wine several hours (and several other bottles) later that night as I lay down to sleep. Spectacular aromatics were present on these wines as well, with the Chambertin displaying a garrigue, or wild herbal note akin to a mix of rosemary, sage and lavender.
Bordeaux is more well known for the longevity of its wines than Burgundy (which I clearly take issue with given the examples above), and the greatest examples of pre-phylloxera wines I have tried from the region have all been from Château Lafite-Rothschild. Funny enough, the bottles I tasted were courtesy of a collector friend who acquired them not from Château Lafite but actually from the cellars at Château Latour. As result the bottles I tasted had no labels on them, but had been recorked by Latour, at Latour, and sealed with lead capsules with the Château Latour emblem. Nonetheless these had perfect provenance, having been acquired in the 1920’s via an exchange between the two iconic Pauillac properties. The collection of bottles we opened to taste included a slightly corked 1865, musty from a bad cork but texturally interesting, a spectacular 1870 (one of the most famous vintages at Lafite) which had a black pepper spice element that was confounding, very unlike Cabernet and perhaps an example of the practice we know as common in that era of blending Bordeaux wines with Hermitage Syrah, and a smoky, high acid example from 1891. While the 1870 was my favorite, the 1891 was one of the more compelling wines I remember for sure. It is actually possible that by 1891 the vineyard had been grafted already, making it a post-phylloxera wine, but I remember the wine having that gripping tannin that I associate with ungrafted wines, and a great deal of texture also. In October, Pressoir will host a dinner featuring the 1891 at Le Veau d’Or, along with Saskia de Rothschild of Château Lafite-Rothschild, so you have an opportunity to taste for yourself if you are able to attend!
