Since the 19th century, members of the Rothschild family have owned a winery in France named Château Lafite. Lafite comes… from the Gascon term "la hite" meaning "small hill." Lafite began to earn its reputation as a great winemaking estate in the 17th Century and between 1732-1733, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Robert Walpole, purchased a barrel of Lafite every three months. A 1787 Chateau Lafite bottle once thought to be owned by Thomas Jefferson was sold at an auction for $156,000, a r