Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte's excellent reputation today is based on the work of Daniel and Florence Cathiard, who bought the estate in 1990. Unfortunately, the 1990 vintage, which was excellent in itself, had already been screwed up by the previous owners, as had many nominally great vintages before that. The Cathiard start with the lean years 1991 to 1993 was not happy in terms of time, but immediately showed the ambitions, since these difficult years turned out better than anything that was known from this winery in the years before.
The meticulousness and precision in the winemaking process is fascinating. The perfect reading time is defined for the individual plots with an Oenoview satellite system. The strictest selection of the grapes takes place on the vine, followed by the selection of imperfect berries using an optical sorting machine. This 100% attitude on this winery struck me on my first visit there as a triviality. Never again have I seen such an accurately laid pebble path. I had the impression that an employee puts it in order every day so that not a single stone is wrong here.
Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte now makes sensational white and red Graves wines. They are among the absolute highlights of the AOP Pessac-Léognan every year and are therefore among the greatest wines in all of Bordeaux. The 78 hectares of vines are planted in one piece and with the red grape varieties 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, 11 of the 78 hectares are for the white wine varieties Sauvignon Blanc (90%), Sauvignon Gris and Semillon (5% each) reserved. Many of the vines are around 70 years old, which gives the wines a lot of depth and excitement.
Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte's excellent reputation today is based on the work of Daniel and Florence Cathiard, who bought the estate in 1990. Unfortunately, the 1990 vintage, which was excellent in itself, had already been screwed up by the previous owners, as had many nominally great vintages before that. The Cathiard start with the lean years 1991 to 1993 was not happy in terms of time, but immediately showed the ambitions, since these difficult years turned out better than anything that was known from this winery in the years before.
