Lafite 2008 celebrates new wines to be produced in China with lucky character.

The lucky Chinese character for the number eight emblazoned in red on every bottle of Lafite 2008 as a symbol of future China-grown premier cru wines from the winemaker's vines 800km outside of Shanghai known as China's Bordeaux.
According to wine news source Decanter.com, "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," said a spokeswoman for Lafite owner Domaines Barons de Rothschild.
Selecting the symbol for the eight is so lucky "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."
The world authority on wine Robert Parker noted that 2008 Lafite is "one of the most profound young wines I have ever tasted," and scored it 98-100.
The bottles won't be physically available until 2011 but investors and Chinese wine lovers are buying by the caseload.
Stephen Browett of Farr Vintners explained "this is a wine that we sold at £1,950 [€2230] en primeur 18 months ago and it reached £9,000 [€10,300] recently. As a result of the announcement it has hit £10,000 [€11,434] a case and we are out of stock."
And, Browett is not alone -- most merchants can't get their hands on any more of these lucky bottles.
Many wine enthusiasts also expect the premier cru Mouton 2008 to reveal a label with Chinese characters by December 2010.

Published 03.11.2010