Rothschild baron who revived the Chateau Lafite wine dies

VIENNA, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) – Baron Elie de Rothschild, a banker who revived the prestigious Chateau Lafite wine, died Monday at the age of 90, police said.

Rothschild, who was French, died of a heart attack in a hunting lodge he owned in Innsbruck, in the western Tyrol region of Austria.

He had taken over the Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vineyard in 1946, reviving this vintage wine after the Rothschild family, which is Jewish, lost control of it during the Nazi occupation of France.

Elie de Rothschild, who was born on May 29, 1917, handed over the wine company to his nephew Baron Eric de Rothschild in 1974.

A former head of the board of the Swiss bank Rothschild AG in Zurich, Elie de Rothschild had with his wife Liliane put together an extensive art collection, part of which they gave to the Louvre in Paris and other museums.

Guy de Rothschild, another member of the famous family and an influential behind-the-scenes figure in French politics of the 1960s and 70s, died in June aged 98.

AFP

Subject: French news