Wine Was 'homemade'

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday August 11, 2007

Mark McGinness

ELIE DE ROTHSCHILD 1917-2007

BARON ELIE DE ROTHSCHILD, with his brother, Alain, and their cousin, Guy, burnished the postwar reputation of the French branch of the dynasty by living in the way Rothschilds were expected to: in great style and in pursuit of passions and causes that appealed to them. Elie was the most worldly - probably the closest a Rothschild had come to being described as a playboy - but he, too, left a laudable legacy.

Born on the same day as John F. Kennedy, Elie Robert de Rothschild was the youngest of four children of Baron Robert Philippe and his beautiful wife, Nelly Beer. They lived in a splendid house in Avenue de Marigny, Paris, surrounded by music and brought up by English nannies.

When World War II broke out, Elie and Alain rode to the front with their cavalry regiment, the Anciens 11emes Cuirassiers. They were captured near the Belgian border as France fell. Elie tried to escape from Nienburg POW camp and was transferred to Colditz. It was here, on October 7, 1941, that he married by proxy his childhood love, Liliane Fould-Springer, the youngest of three daughters of the banker Baron Eugene Fould and his wife, the heiress Mitzi Springer.

Six months later, Liliane went through similar proceedings, beside an empty chair in front of a table bearing Elie's photograph, in Cannes town hall. By then Elie was a POW in Lubeck where he was reunited with Alain. It was under Wehrmacht control and they were treated as officers, rather than Jews, and so they survived.

After the war both brothers returned to their childhood home, with their wives. Elie took charge of the family vineyard, Chateau Lafite, in the Medoc. Its celebrated vines were first planted about 1680, the wine found favour with Louis XV and, in 1855, it was accorded the status premier cru. The family acquired the estate in 1868 and renamed it Chateau Lafite Rothschild. They weathered phylloxera, mildew, World War I and the Great Depression but Nazi occupation and neglect required discipline and vision. It paid off with two celebrated vintages in 1947 and 1949, described as "rays of hope amid the hard labours of renewal."

Elie would say "from the moment you start to think of wine as an investment and not as something to be drunk, that's the end" and yet he began a quietly furious battle to prevent his cousin and neighbour, Baron Philippe at Chateau Mouton Rothschild, from being awarded premier cru status. In 1973 Philippe achieved this and in 1974 Elie handed control of Lafite to Alain's son, Eric.

For years, Guy, Alain and Elie controlled the bank Rothschild Freres.

They were particular with their clientele. As Guy de Rothschild put it, "We are a bit choosy about who is going to sign his name on our cheques." The brothers seemed happy to leave it to Guy. A friend remarked: "It is because Guy spends 11 months out of 12 at the office that Alain and Elie are able to spend one month out of 12 there."

In the 1950s, Elie and Liliane moved into the magnificent Hotel de Masseran, an 18th-century masterpiece designed by Brogniart, and later another historic house in the rue de Courcelles. They served the best wines ("I do hope you enjoy the wine. It's homemade," Liliane would say) and had the finest chefs. White-gloved footmen served guests on perfect Sevres with a different vintage for each course. Elie described Liliane as "plus Rothschild que les Rothschilds". She filled the house with Rothschild portraits, Louis XIV cabinets, old and modern masters. She was clever, cultured, witty, dynamic and terribly precise - but no beauty.

Elie - 180cm, wiry, winsome, with piercing eyes, chiselled features and a neatly trimmed moustache -- was part of a fast set. Aly Khan and Gianni Agnelli (the Fiat heir) were friends and, emerging, in 1952, from affairs with both of them was the celebrated aristocratic adventuress, Pamela Churchill (nee Digby, later Hayward, later Harriman). In 1953 Liliane went into seclusion following the death of her sister, Poppy.

Pamela Churchill's timing was always exquisite. She knew how to care for her men and had the ability to convince a lover that her time with him was "the greatest thing that had happened since the juxtaposition of the planets". Elie's affair with her was clandestine but had its awkward moments. The Duke of Windsor once asked a devastated Liliane which of the Rothschilds was involved with Pamela. "My husband," she replied. It endured for six years. Elie would have at least two more mistresses but none as consuming and unsettling as Churchill

Elie, who died at his hunting lodge near Innsbruck on Monday, aged 90, was the last of his generation. He is survived by a son and two daughters. Liliane died in 2003.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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