Château Pichon Longueville Baron or Château Longueville au Baron de Pichon-Longueville (commonly referred to as Pichon Baron) is a winery in the Pauillac appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. Château Pichon Longueville Baron is also the name of the red wine produced by this property. The wine produced here was classified as one of fifteen Deuxièmes Crus (Second Growths) in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.
History
Château Pichon Baron was once part of a larger estate, owned by Pierre de Rauzan, along with Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. In 1850 the estate was divided into the two current Pichon estates. In 1987 the estate was purchased by French insurance company AXA, who immediately appointed Jean-Michel Cazes of Château Lynch-Bages as administrator. The property is currently managed by Englishman Christian Seely.
Vineyard
Château Pichon Baron's 73 hectares are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (35%), Cabernet Franc (4%) and Petit Verdot (1%). The planting density is 9 000 vines per hectare using a double Guyot training and the average age of the vines is 30 years. The yield is typically less than 40 hectoliter per hectare. The vineyard is situated at the southern end of the commune of Pauillac near border with the Saint-Julien-Beychevelle appellation.
Wine
Grapes are harvested and sorted by hand, and then macerated for 20-30 days, and fermented at 28-32 °C in temperature controlled stainless steel vats of varying sizes. The wine is transferred into oak barrels for aging after finishing its malolactic fermentation. The estate also produces a second wine, Les Tourelles de Longueville.

Château Pichon-Longueville

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Château Lafite Rothschild is a wine estate in France, owned by members of the Rothschild family since the 19th century. The name Lafite comes from the surname of the La Fite family.
Lafite was one of four wine-producing châteaux of Bordeaux originally awarded First Growth status in the 1855 Classification, which was based on the prices and wine quality at that time. Since then, it has been a consistent producer of one of the world's most expensive red wines.
History
Situated in the wine-producing village of Pauillac in the Médoc region to the north-west of Bordeaux, the estate was the property of Gombaud de Lafite in 1234. In the 17th century, the property of Château Lafite was purchased by the Ségur family, including the 16th century manor house that still stands. Although vines almost certainly already existed on the site, around 1680, Jacques de Ségur planted the majority of the vineyard.
In the early 18th century, Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Ségur refined the wine-making techniques of the estate, and introduced his wines to the upper echelons of European society. Before long he was known as the "Wine Prince", and the wine of Château Lafite called "The King's Wine" thanks to the influential support of the Maréchal de Richelieu. Towards the end of the 18th century, Lafite's reputation was assured and even Thomas Jefferson visited the estate and became a lifelong customer.
Following the French Revolution, the period known as Reign of Terror led to the execution of Nicolas Pierre de Pichard on 30 June 1794, bringing an end to the Ségur family's ownership of the estate which became public property. In 1797 the vineyards were sold to a group of Dutch merchants.
The first half of the 19th century saw Lafite in the hands of the Vanlerberghe family and the wine improved more, including the great vintages of 1795, 1798 and 1818. In 1868 the Château was purchased by Baron James Mayer Rothschild for 4.4 million francs, and the estate became Château Lafite Rothschild. Rothschild, however, died just three months after purchasing Lafite. The estate then became the joint property of his three sons: Alphonse, Gustave and Edmond Rothschild.
The 20th century has seen periods of success and difficulty, coping with post-phylloxera vines, and two world wars. During the Second World War the Château was occupied by the German army, and suffered heavily from plundering of its cellars. Succeeding his uncle Élie de Rothschild, Lafite has been under the direction of Éric de Rothschild since 1974.
The record price at auction for a bottle of wine £96,000 was for a 1787 Château Lafite which was once thought to be owned by Thomas Jefferson. The authenticity of the bottle has been challenged.
Recently the 2008 vintage produced a worldwide increase in price of over 125% in six months from release, which in turn has come to push some Asian countries to the top of the list of worldwide markets in which investment grade wine is purchased.
Counterfeiting
In early November 2012, police in the city of Wenzhou, China seized nearly 10,000 bottles of suspected counterfeit Châteaux Lafite Rothschild. Lafite is very popular among China's nouveau riche, but analysts suspect that between 50 and 70 per cent of wine labeled "Château Lafite Rothschild" in China is fake. If genuine, the collection seized in Wenzhou would have been worth up to $16 million (US).
Vineyard
The vineyard is one of the largest in the Médoc at 107 hectares, and produces around 35,000 cases annually, of which between 15,000 and 25,000 are first growth. Its vines are around 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, whereas the final wine is between 80% and 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% and 20% Merlot, and up to 3% Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Occasionally exceptions are made, such as the 1961 vintage which was 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Wines
In addition to the first growth, around a third of the wine is released as a second wine under the label Carruades de Lafite.
Price
Across all vintages Lafite Rothschild is one of the most expensive wines in the world, with the average price per 750 ml bottle reaching $911. Prices for Carruades de Lafite rose dramatically due in part to Chinese demand, with the prices of its 2005 and 2000 vintage fetching over £10,000 per case. After peaking in 2011, however, the price of some vintages halved in two years.

Château Lafite Rothschild

Built on marshy land on the Left Bank of the Gironde, opposite Fort Pâté, Fort Médoc was a key part of Vauban's three-point defence system.  Its purpose was to block the passage of ships between Île Pâté and Cussac in the Médoc. Fort Médoc was built in 1689-1690 on low-lying terrain with alluvial soil. The artillery battery was pointed towards Blaye and most of the structure was taken up to house it.
In order to keep the fort from being captured by soldiers disembarking from the estuary, it was necessary to build a structure able to resist such an attack. The square-shaped fort, oriented perpendicularly to the riverbank, consisted of four bastions linked by curtain walls. A demilune protected the imposing Porte Royale on the side furthest from the estuary. This vast entity was in turn protected by a covered walkway, a preliminary moat, and a main moat able to be filled with water by locks.
Two rows of barracks were built inside the square as well as a building to house the Major, a chapel, a bakery, and a gunpowder storage area. The barracks could accommodate 300 soldiers. However, the military role of Fort Médoc turned out to be rather negligible in the course of its history. In fact, it was never attacked. In 1716, thirteen 6 and 8 pound cannons and a rather limited number of cannonballs were nevertheless waiting. By 1789, only a few soldiers, mostly disabled veterans, and three old cannons attested to the fort's military vocation. 
After periods of virtual abandon, followed by a renovation, the site was decommissioned by the army in 1916. It became the property of the commune of Cussac in 1930. This part of Vauban's project, executed by the architect Duplessy, is typical of fortifications designed by the French military strategist.
http://www.verrou-vauban.com/index.php/fort-medoc.html

Fort Médoc

Château Margaux, archaically La Mothe de Margaux, is a wine estate of Bordeaux wine, and was one of four wines to achieve Premier cru (first growth) status in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The estate's best wines are very expensive, with a standard-sized bottle of the Château Margaux grand vin retailing at an average price of $639. The estate is located in the commune of Margaux on the left bank of the Garonne estuary in the Médoc region, in the département of Gironde, and the wine is delimited to the AOC of Margaux.
The estate also produces a second wine named Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux, a third wine named Margaux de Château Margaux, as well as a dry white wine named Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux which does not conform to the Margaux appellation directives.
History
The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, with the site occupied by a fortified castle known as Lamothe or La Mothe (from motte, a small rise in the land), and wine under names such as "Margou" and "Margous" was known in the 15th century, but it was with the arrival of the Lestonnac family in the 16th century that wine production became of particular importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac expanded the property and cleared many of the grain fields to make way for vines.
The lineage of ownership was to continue in a relatively direct path from the Lestonnacs, though through the female side, with proprietors' names such as d'Aulède, Fumel, d'Hargicourt, including an alliance of marriage with the Pontac family of Château Haut-Brion in 1654, which became crucial to the inclusion of Château Margaux among the four first growths.
By the beginning of the 18th century, the estate comprised 265 hectares (650 acres) with a third devoted to viticulture, which is nearly identical to the modern layout. As with many of Médoc's châteaux, the early 18th century saw the wine develop from a pale watery drink that faded within only a few years, to the dark, complex liquid that has been stored in cellars ever since, and a transformation was largely due to an estate manager named Berlon, who revolutionised techniques of wine-making by introducing novel ideas such as banning harvesting in the early morning to avoid dew-covered grapes and subsequently dilution, and acknowledged the importance of soil quality in the various terroir found on the estate.
In 1771, wine from the estate became the first claret to be sold at Christie's, and upon visiting Bordeaux in 1787, Thomas Jefferson made note of Château Margaux as one of the "four vineyards of first quality".
Following the French Revolution, the owner Elie du Barry was executed by guillotine and the estate expropriated, eventually becoming the property of the citizen Miqueau who neglected its care and maintenance. Briefly rescued by Laure de Fumel, she was soon forced to sell, and in 1802 the estate was purchased by the Marquis de la Colonilla, Bertrand Douat for 654,000 francs.
The estate's old château was torn down and completely rebuilt when Douat commissioned one of Bordeaux' foremost architects, Louis Combes (fr), to create the buildings in the First Empire style, the mansion for the Marquis to move into by 1812.
Large portions of shares in the estate were bought by the Bordeaux wine merchant Fernand Ginestet (then owner of the adjacent Château Lascombes) in 1925, and the family share was gradually increased to allow his son Pierre Ginestet to take complete ownership in 1949. In 1965, Pierre Ginestet controversially declared a new estate policy that the vintage year would only be affixed to great vintages, while selling the wine of lesser years as non-vintage wine, like the customary practice of Champagne.
Modern history
Following the Bordeaux economic crisis of 1973, the Ginestet family were forced to sell Château Margaux. An attempt by National Distillers & Chemical Corporation to acquire Château Margaux was vetoed by the French government on grounds that the estate was a national treasure. (This has since been reported as a Coca-Cola Company effort prevented by French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.)
A successful acquisition took place in 1976 by French grocery and finance group Félix Potin, headed by Greek André Mentzelopoulos for a sum near 72 million francs, or $16 million. Mentzelopoulos transformed the vineyard through restoring the neglected vineyard, chais, and mansion and the consultancy of oenologist Émile Peynaud. By the time of Mentzelopoulos' death in 1980, Château Margaux was considered substantially restored to its former reputation, with the 1978 and 1979 vintages declared "exceptional".
At the beginning of the 1990s, an exchange of shares was negotiated with the Agnelli family but the management remained in the hands of Mentzelopoulos' daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos. In 2003, Corinne Mentzelopoulos bought back the majority stake and became the sole shareholder of Château Margaux.
A bottle of Château Margaux 1787 holds the record as the most expensive bottle of wine ever broken, insured at $225,000.
Margaux Hemingway received her given name from this wine.
Production
The domaine of Château Margaux extends 262 hectares (650 acres), of which 87 hectares (210 acres) are entitled to the Margaux AOC declaration. 80 hectares (200 acres) are planted with 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, with 2% Cabernet Franc and Petit verdot. 12 hectares (30 acres) are cultivated with Sauvignon blanc to make the dry white Pavillon Blanc.
The average annual production of the Grand vin, Château Margaux, is 150,000 bottles, while the second wine Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux has an average production of 200,000 bottles. The dry white Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux has a production of around 35,000 bottles, and must be sold under the generic Bordeaux AOC as the cultivation of Sauvignon blanc does not fall under the directives of the Margaux AOC. The remainder of the production, what is determined to be "lesser grapes", is sold off in bulk.
In popular culture
In 1888 a zarzuela of one hour titled with this name was premiered in Spain, being musical work of the teacher Manuel Fernández Caballero.
In the 1990 film, Arachnophobia, Jeff Daniels' character makes multiple references to Chateau Margaux in his wine cellar and refuses to throw it at the spider while being attacked muttering "Not the Margaux."
In Abuse of Weakness, Isabelle Huppert’s character serves a 2003 Chateau Margaux.
Downton Abbey, Season 5, Episode 9. Carson tells Mrs Hughes “You don’t go far wrong with a Margaux."
In Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne is seen drinking a glass of vintage Château Margaux, after waking up from a nightmare, in his Glasshouse on Wayne Manor grounds.
This wine is shown as being offered by John Scully to Steve Jobs in the movie Steve Jobs.
In Season 7 of the AMC drama Mad Men, Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) offers a glass of Chateau Margaux 1953 to his long time colleague and now adversary Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton) in an effort to impress him during a business dinner.
In Marvel Knights Spider-Man (vol. 1) #2 Owl offered Spider-Man a glass of Chateau Margaux from Latveria.