After his father's death in 1970, Daniel found himself running the family's small supermarket chain. Within 20 years, he had transformed it into the tenth largest mass distribution company in France.At the same time, he launched and developed a chain of sporting goods shops - Go Sport - in France, Belgium, Spain, and California .

His met his wife Florence while on the ski team in 1965. She worked with him managing Genty and Go Sport for ten years before launching her own advertising firm, later becoming Vice President of McCann Europe in 1985.

In 1990, Daniel and Florence sold all their business interests to buy Chגteau Smith Haut Lafitte. After two years of massive renovations of both the winery buildings and the 18th century manor house, they moved into the chגteau. They live there all year round in order to devote themselves to their life's work – making great red and white wines at Smith Haut Lafitte.

The estate is located in a single block on a gravelly rise; 55 of the 72 hectares are planted with vines. The soil, consisting of gravel dating from the Gunz (or Nebraskan glacial) period, has two unique features. The first is superb natural drainage which forces the vine roots to sink more than six metres into the soil to seek nourishment in the form of water and mineral salts. The second is the "mirror effect", of the topsoil, whose pebbles reflect the sun's rays, helping the grapes to ripen beautifully.

The noble Bosq family started growing grapes here as early as 1365. The property was purchased in the 18th century by Scotsman George Smith, who gave the estate its present name. He also built the manor house and exported his – by now famous – wine to England on his own ships.
Monsieur Duffour-Dubergier, Mayor of Bordeaux and an enthusiastic winegrower, inherited Chגteau Smith Haut Lafitte from his mother in 1842 and brought the wine up to great growth status.

Impressed by Smith Haut Lafitte's excellent quality, the Louis Eschenauer company distributed the wine all over the world as of the early 20th century, deciding to buy the estate in 1958. Since the Eschenaueur period came to an end, a great deal of money has been invested in the estate, notably in the construction of a superb underground cellar holding over 2,000 barrels.

In 1990, Daniel Cathiard fell in love with the property and joined the list of prestigious owners, firmly intending to further enhance Smith Haut Lafitte's tradition of excellence. He combined the most modern winemaking techniques and age-old traditional methods: organic compost, return to small wooden vats, ageing on the lees in barrel, etc.

Famous around the world for its wonderfully elegant red wine and the sophisticated bouquet of its white, Smith Haut Lafitte undoubtedly deserves the special care that is lavished on it.

The Cathiard family abandoned mechanical harvesting in favour of handpicking when they bought the estate. To avoid oxidisation, the freshly-picked bunches of grapes are put onto small 20-25 kg trays. Specially designed ergonomic hods hold these trays until such time as they are taken to the trailer. This system of ergonomic hods developed by Daniel Cathiard is based on a type used by sherpas in the Himalayas. It enables full hods to be exchanged with empty ones upon arrival at the trailer without crushing the grapes before they reach the cellar. While the bunches are being handpicked, an initial sorting takes place to ensure that only the ripest, healthiest grapes are used, as befits a great wine. A second manual sorting is done after destemming on a sorting table downstream from the destemmer. This eliminates any remaining vegetable matter overlooked in the previous sorting.

WHITE WINES

Once the grapes are pressed, the must is put into small stainless steel settling vats. There is one vat per vineyard plot in order to retain the specific qualities of each plot until the final blend is made. The temperature is lowered to 8°C during settling, which takes 24-48 hours.
Alcoholic fermentation takes place in barrel after settling.
The wine is then aged in oak (50% of the barrels have been used for one previous vintage) on the lees for 10-12 months. The barrels are regularly topped up and stirred with a stick (bגtonnage).
The new barrels add toasty, vanilla hints, which integrate perfectly with the wine. Only the greatest wines can accept a large amount of new oak. A fine wine will always dominate the taste of oak, rather than the reverse.

Chגteau Smith Haut Lafitte has its own cooperage, which is where we will end the tour.

RED WINES

The eighteen 110-hectolitre French oak vats purchased for maceration in 1998 proved to be very efficient. Subsequently, all the stainless steel vats were replaced with new 80-hectolitre truncated cone-shaped wooden vats in 2000.

Alcoholic fermentation takes place at 28-32°C thanks to a temperature control system that takes advantage of the oak's thermal inertia. Maceration on the skins extracts tannins and colour from the cap, which remains in contact with the wine for three weeks.

The cap is submerged three times a day and the wine is also pumped over for optimum extraction. Once the vatting period is finished, the wine is put into barrels in the underground cellar. This large underground cellar (5 metres underground) holds 1,300 barrels on one level. Before barrel-ageing, the red wines spend approximately three weeks in malolactic fermentation at 20°C. This temperature is carefully maintained in a part of the cellar separated by plastic curtains.
The wine is barrel-aged for 18 months – it rarely needs fining or filtration. Depending on the vintage, we use approximately 80% new barrels each year.

The red wine is blended according to grape variety before the final blend: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. Although the percentages may vary from year to year, Cabernet always represents the lion's share. All wines are chגteau bottled.

BASIC WINEMAKING GLOSSARY

Bגtonnage, or stirring: This practice consists of using a stick to stir the wine to put the lees into suspension. It is done twice a week for the first two months after fermentation and then on a less regular basis. The sticks used at Chגteau Smith Haut Lafitte were invented by Daniel Cathiard, inspired by a type of bent ski pole with blades.
Topping up: Wine evaporates during barrel ageing. Topping up consists of filling up the airspace and reducing the wine's surface area in contact with oxygen. The wine is topped up each time it is stirred.
Racking: Towards the end of the barrel-ageing process, the wine is racked to separate it from the lees. After racking, it is fined with bentonite before the final blend is made and the wine is bottled.