Jay-Z celebrates 54th birthday with epic Bordeaux fine wine crawl

Beyonce and husband Jay-Z threw a star-studded party at an organic wine estate at Pessac-Léognan, followed by a tour of some of the finest producers in Bordeaux.

Guests including Rihanna and Kris Jenner descended on the vineyards of a Bordeaux wine estate to mark the Empire State of Mind singer’s birthday celebrations, on 4 December.

According to French news channel TFI, Jay-Z privately hired the entire 64-room spa hotel Les Sources de Caudalie, belonging to Château Smith Haut Lafitte, an organically farmed estate founded in the 14th century and acquired by the Cathiard family in 1990.

Widely regarded as one of the finest producers in Pessac-Léognan, Château Smith Haut Lafitte has 67 ha under vine and produces for its grand vin a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

A luxurious birthday dinner was served for Jay-Z’s party at Château Smith Haut Lafitte. Its gastronomic pairing menu starts at €205 per person and currently includes fare such as beef filet with brown juice, truffle creamy celery and glazed carrot, served alongside Le Petit Haut Lafitte red 2014 in magnum.

As part of the multi-day event guests were also treated to tours of some of the most celebrated wineries in the region, including Château d’Yquem in Sauternes on the Left Bank, Château Cheval Blanc in Saint-Émilion, and Château Petrus where bottles of the 1969 vintage (Jay-Z’s birth year) were served.

Both Château d’Yquem and Château Cheval Blanc belong to luxury goods group LVMH, to which Jay-Z sold 50% of his Arnaud de Brignac Champagne brand in 2021. In October, Arnaud de Brignac released its Blanc de Noirs Assemblage Number Four, for an eyewatering recommended retail price of £1,055.

Jay-Z’s musical business partner Jay Brown, co-founder and vice-chairman of record label Roc Nation, took to social media to wish Jay-Z a happy birthday, with a nod to the epic trip.

“BROOKLYN TO BORDEAUX. More life to my brother,” Brown wrote on Instagram.

Earlier this year, Jay-Z settled a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit with Bacardi over joint Cognac venture D’ussé.

Jay-Z instigated the litigation by demanding a buy-out over concerns that a Bacardi subsidiary (Empire Investments Inc.), which looked after the daily operations of D’ussé, had mismanaged the Cognac brand by “failing to prepare for a surge in consumer interest”.