Baron Elie de Rothschild, who has died aged 90, was a partner of the Rothschilds' bank in Paris and for some years ran Château Lafite -Rothschild, the family's premier cru Pauillac vineyard in the Médoc.
Elie Robert de Rothschild was born on May 29 1917, the younger son of Baron Robert de Rothschild. Baron Robert was a partner, with his cousin Baron Edouard (Baron Guy de Rothschild's father), of the family bank, de Rothschild Frères, at 19 rue Laffitte.
Elie's mother Nelly, a noted beauty and hostess, was a daughter of Edmond Beer, the descendant of a German-Jewish banker from Frankfurt, who settled in France on a small estate at St Germains. Nelly was a great-great-niece of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer; her younger sister, Marie-Louise, married Baron Robert's English cousin Lionel de Rothschild, the rhododendron and azalea expert, of Exbury.
Elie and his siblings Diane, Alain and Cécile were brought up by British nannies at Château de Laversine, near Chantilly, and in Paris at 23 avenue de Marigny, a mansion built by their grandfather Baron Gustave de Rothschild in 1885 and set in several acres of gardens just across the street from the Elysée Palace.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Alain and Elie rode off to the front with their cavalry regiment, the Anciens 11èmes Cuirassiers - "like Pancho Villa," Elie said, "with a horse and a sabre". After German forces invaded France in May 1940 the brothers were captured (Alain was in hospital, recovering from wounds) near the Belgian frontier.
Elie was sent to a German PoW camp near Nienburg from which, after an unsuccessful escape attempt, he was sent to Colditz. Subsequently he was moved again, to a camp at Lübeck, where he was reunited with Alain.
During his internment, Elie wrote to his childhood sweetheart, Liliane Fould-Springer, proposing that they be married by proxy; she accepted. The groom took his vows at Colditz in October 1941; the bride took hers in the town hall at Cannes, in Vichy France, in April 1942 - sitting beside an empty chair with a photograph of Elie in front of her.
After the war Elie helped his cousin Guy and brother Alain to put de Rothschild Frères back on its feet, and to expand their Compagnie du Nord.
In 1967, the old rue Laffitte building was pulled down to make way for a modern concrete and glass structure. The bank, which had hitherto specialised in providing investment services, began to take deposits, and changed its name to La Banque Rothschild. Eventually, much to the family's chagrin, it was nationalised by President François Mitterrand.
In 1956 Elie had also become president of the family company PLM, an enterprise to build and promote hotels, motels and restaurants. PLM built up a chain in France and Switzerland, and its first hotel in Paris, the 812-room Hotel Saint-Jacques, was opened in 1972. Liliane supervised the interior decoration of PLM's properties.
In addition to his business activities in Paris, in 1946 Elie had assumed charge of running Château Lafite-Rothschild, which he owned jointly with Alain, Guy and their Anglophile cousin Jimmy de Rothschild (of Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury). Château Lafite had been bought by Baron James de Rothschild - younger brother of the celebrated NM Rothschild and the founder of the bank in Paris - a few months before his death in 1868.
In 1855 Château Lafite had been classified, along with Châteaux Latour, Margaux and Haut Brion, as premier crus clarets, Lafite being then judged the best of all. This left out Lafite's neighbouring vineyard, Château Brane-Mouton, which was later bought by one of NM Rothschild's sons (and Baron James's son-in-law) Nat, who subsequently renamed it Mouton-Rothschild.
By the time Elie took over at Lafite, his original and creative cousin Baron Philippe, Nat's great-grandson, was running and making great strides at Mouton-Rothschild. Philippe was also keen, with every justification, that his wine should be included in the premier cru classification, and had launched the Association des premiers crus for all five vineyards.
Having initially gone along with Philippe, Elie then decided to oppose the idea of Mouton-Rothschild's inclusion in a new premier cru classification; for a time the cousins were barely on speaking terms. Philippe persisted, and in the end won; Mouton-Rothschild finally attained the well-deserved - and valuable - premier cru status in 1973.
In the immediate postwar years, in Paris, Elie and Alain and their wives shared 23 avenue de Marigny. During the war the house had been occupied as Luftwaffe headquarters and had been frequented by Hermann Goering; it was then taken over by their English cousin Victor, Lt-Col Lord Rothschild, who had become a wartime specialist in counter-sabotage (bomb disposal).
In the 1950s Elie and Liliane and their children moved into a house of their own, 11 rue Masseran. An 18th-century mansion built by Brongniart for Prince Masserano in 1785, their new house was almost as big as 23 avenue de Marigny, and more attractive. It provided a fine setting for their magnificent 18th-century French furniture, objets d'art, Old Masters and modern paintings.
But not everything was perfect. In 1954 Elie met Pamela Churchill (later Harriman) at a party in a Paris restaurant organised by some American bankers; Liliane was away from home at the time. Pam Churchill was then being looked after handsomely by Gianni Agnelli, with an allowance, a flat and a Bentley.
Elie - tall, slim, boyish, rich and fast - had heard about Pam Churchill (three years his junior), and had taken a rather dim view of her grand-demimondaine set-up. When they met, though, he was much taken with her red hair, fair skin and pleasant manner; before long they began an affair.
"She wasn't coquettish," Baron Elie told a friend, "just very sweet and charming and pretty. I wanted to go to bed with her, and I did." Despite Pam Churchill's hopes, though, Baron Elie - no stranger to the brief affair - never contemplated leaving his wife, on whom he depended and who, deploying her sharp wits and loyal friends, soon saw off the mistress.
In 1974 Elie handed over the reins at Château Lafite-Rothschild to his nephew Eric, Alain's son. Elie de Rothschild and his wife were noted for their hospitality, and once employed the young Jean-Christophe Novelli, and encouraged him to work in England. Elie de Rothschild remained active until his death yesterday at his hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps.
Elie and Liliane de Rothschild had a son and two daughters.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbHLnp6rmaCde6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwu8Giq66Zop6ytHuQbmxybmJmfIOt0ailZn2cnrJusMRmiaismKiwqbXLnWWhrJ2h