ROTHSCHILD'S BRITISH LANDMARK
In the English countryside, not far from Oxford,
rises a 19th century stately home with a rich wine tradition. Andre Pretorius goes rummaging around the staterooms of a family that has converted financial success into wine.
THE EMBLEMS of Britain's landed gentry lie scattered from just beyond the estate's cast-iron gates. The gravel road sweeps majestically up the hill across acres of luxurious lawn. I am forced to brake suddenly to avoid a cock pheasant - that trophy of the aristocratic shooting party - strutting arrogantly, as if he knows the hunting season is months away.
It is mid-summer and the sweet perfume of petunias envelops the garden like a thick, pungent blanket. Marble and sandstone sculptures wordlessly tell their stories from forgotten mythologies in the quiet shade of venerable old trees - oak, pine, birch, plane and yew.
At the end of the garden, the Buckinghamshire countryside tumbles away to the Vale of Aylesbury's patchwork of ripening wheat fields and green pastures where sheep graze. At the heart of it all stands Waddesdon Manor, the stately home that Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild erected for himself between 1874 and 1889 - a Victorian fantasy in golden stone.
But what has any of this to do with wine? The flag fluttering above the house contains a clue: five arrows are bunched together on a blue background - the heraldic symbol of the Rothschild family. A symbol you will also encounter on some of the most illustrious wine bottles in the world.
A further clue awaits in the room where the family history is elaborated. A kind of architectural family tree shows the stately homes of the different branches of the House of Rothschild, scattered across Europe. There are a handful that would make wine lovers' mouths water. Such as Chateau Lafite in the Medoc, north of Bordeaux, which Baron James de Rothschild purchased in 1868.
Lafite ... one of the most legendary wines anywhere in the world - "the first of the first growths". But it is not the only fabulous wine estate in Rothschild ownership. In the little more than two centuries since Mayer Amschel Rothschild sent his five sons into the world to found banks in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and Naples, Rothschild has become one of the most respected names in the international banking world.
But not only in banking - in the world of wine too. The Rothschild wine interests have their origin in the region that was, for centuries, the wine fountain of the English aristocracy, Bordeaux. Apart from the purchase of Lafite, another branch of the family acquired the neighbouring Chateau Mouton-Rothschild in 1853.
At Mouton one descendant, Baron Philippe, would conduct a tenacious campaign after 1922 to have the estate elevated from its second growth status to the exclusive ranks of the first growths. Not that the cousins from Lafite and Mouton always sat around the same fire: for decades there was a distinctly frosty air between Baron Philippe at Mouton and Baron Elie at Lafite. It was rumoured that the one would intentionally serve the other's wine with spicy food - curry, say - to show it in a bad light ...
But by the time I met Elie's successor at Lafite, the affable Baron Eric, in Paris in 2001, family harmony had settled between him and Philippe's successor at Mouton, Baroness Philippine. They saw in the new millennium together with a bottle of Lafite 1799 and Mouton 1899, Baron Eric recalled. And both wines were still quite drinkable.
Lafite and Mouton are not the only two esteemed Bordeaux estates in Rothschild hands. The Lafite branch also own Chateaux Duhart-Milon in Pauillac, L'Évangile in Pomerol and Rieussec in the sweet wine region of Sauternes. And the Mouton branch also owns Chateaux Clerc-Milon and d'Armailhac.
It was Baron Philippe who took the Rothschild wine interest to new continents. It started with a partnership with Californian pioneer Robert Mondavi, which proved to be the genesis of Opus One, one of the most famous wines in the US. Subsequently, the family company has spread its wings to Chile, where Almaviva is also among the country's top wines.
A third branch of the family also owns some real estate in Bordeaux: Baron Edmond bought Chateau Clarke in the sub-region of Listrac-Medoc in 1973. Today, his son, Baron Benjamin, is in charge of Clarke. It was him, too, who took the Rothschild name to South Africa, combining it with one of the greatest names in South African business in the Rupert & Rothschild estate.
The names of the R&R wines reflect the same venerable history as Waddesdon Manor: the Bordeaux style blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot is named after Baron Edmond, purchaser of Chateau Clarke, and the 100 per cent chardonnay after his wife, Baroness Nadine. With such an illustrious vinous tradition in the family, one cannot avoid following the sign to the wine cellar at Waddesdon. Wines as old as the 1870 vintage of Lafite are kept behind bars in a cellar designed on the model of the private cellars at Lafite and Mouton.
Apart from the wines themselves, there are relics of famous bottles, glamorous dinners and the esteemed throats wetted by Rothschild wines. A bottle of Lafite consumed in 1992 at a dinner commemorating Queen Elizabeth II's 40 years on the throne is signed by all the guests, including Her Majesty and her then daughter-in-law, Diana - a festive relic from a year the Queen would call her annus horribilis, when Windsor Castle burnt down and Charles and Diana separated.
Elizabeth II was not the first from her line of descent to visit Waddesdon. The wine cellar displays pictures of her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, visiting the estate. And such was the reputation of Waddesdon at the time of Baron Ferdinand that none less than Queen Victoria let it be known that she would like to be invited for lunch. On 14 May 1890 the royal wish was acceded to. Waddesdon and its kitchens found favour with the regal party: the baron later recorded in his diary that "the Royal appetite is proverbial" and after the visit the chef at Buckingham Palace was dispatched down the Thames Valley to learn from his counterpart at Waddesdon.
In recent times nobility of a different kind have added to the distinction of Waddesdon - and themselves benefited from the lordly home's magnificent interiors. For the front page spread of Vogue in December 2006, Diana's favourite photographer, Mario Testino, shot a number of glamorous photographs of Nicole Kidman at Waddesdon.
Since 1957 the estate has been held in trust by Britain's National Trust, but the Rothschild family is still closely involved in the management of the property. And, explains a steward, the estate is fortunate in having an avid collector in the current Lord Rothschild. Hence, the Testino/Kidman pictures are on display among the house's rich collection of porcelain, crystal, velvet, brocade, tapestry, inlay, gold and furniture. The entire collection oozes discernment, like Francesco Guardi's giant canvasses of Venetian scenes in the entrance hall. But it also speaks of connections in high places: the house is veritably littered with gifts from the crowned heads of Europe - czars, emperors and kings. And with the portraits of various Rothschilds in the company of rulers, in particular around the turn of the last century.
Nowadays blue blood is not a requisite for gaining access to the treasures of Waddesdon, or to eat from the Waddesdon kitchens - although a fat wallet is useful: special dinners are held, designed around the Rothschild wines, with price tags of up to £275 per person, depending more on the wine list as on the main courses.
If such extravagance would require a second mortgage, you can always find your pleasures in an aimless wander around the expansive gardens and luxurious rooms of Waddesdon. The estate is more than just another English stately home in the countryside; it is a depository for the history of one of the most extraordinary families in recent history - and a family that has converted an unusual proportion of its extensive wealth into the fruit of the vine.
* For more details, visit <www.waddesdon.org.uk>