Florence and Daniel Cathiard, Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte
Before coming to Bordeaux, Florence and Daniel Cathiard had already made a name for themselves in a dizzying number of arenas. First in alpine skiing, where they were members of the French national team in the 1960s, then as the founders of a chain of sports shops known as Go Sport, which grew into a €1 billion business from what had been handed to them as a small grocery store business from Daniel's parents.
Florence then found time to launch her own advertising agency with three offices in Grenoble, Lyon and Paris, and became the Vice President of McCann-Erickson for Europe in 1985. Clearly finding all of that a little under-stimulating, they gave this all up to buy a run-down property in the Pessac Leognan region of Bordeaux, Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, and set about turning it into one of the leading wines of the appellation.
'To make a great Pessac Leognan has taught me patience,' Florence Cathiard recently told Le Figaro newspaper (something that may raise a few eyebrows among those who work for the famously demanding proprietor). 'You have to take care of the harvest for 11 months of the year, and then deliver it on the 12th month.' Not quite the same, then, as alpine skiing, where the descent at speeds of up to 130km/h may take two or three minutes.
On arriving at the 56 hectare property, the Cathiards invested heavily, restoring buildings, replanting the vineyard to between 6,500 and 10,000 vines per hectare, opening a small-scale barrel makers on site, constructing a new 2000-barrel cellar - and of course creating the luxury hotel and wine spa, Sources de Caudalie, just next door (this is run by their youngest daughter Alice, while sister Mathilde works on the cosmetics range up in Paris and ma and pa concentrate on the wine).
There was some history of wine in the family - Daniel's grandfather was a wine merchant in the Alps, at the time when wine merchants bought barrels and bottled themselves, leading him to reminsice that he grew up with the smell of barrels all around, and perhaps explaining why he was so keen to open his own tonnellerie (barrel maker) at the chateau. They also give credit to Jean Claude Killy, the Olympic ski champion, for awakening their passion, remembering how he opened bottles of great Bordeaux with his fellow skiers.
The couple split the tasks of running the property fairly cleanly between them - Daniel takes care of the vineyard and winemaking, and Florence the restoration work, sales and marketing. They also have one of the biggest teams of any Bordeaux vineyard, not just in the winery and sales, but in wine tourism, advertising and marketing - not taking into account the hotel and wine spa.
One of Daniel's first actions was to get rid of the pesticides and herbicides. He introduced organic treatments in the vineyard, homemade compost and green cover between the rows of vines (this means allowing grass to cover the soil between rows, to invigorate the soil and ensure greater competition for water; therefore encouraging the roots to naturally go deeper into the earth). They even have a horse to plough certain plots of land (something found at only a few estates here, namely Chateau Pape Clement and Chateau Lanessan) and their own weather station to warn of any impending problems.
The pair are quite controversial in the staid world of Bordeaux, but the wines under their stewardship are widely acknowledged to be excellent - and for me their white white is one of my favourites of Bordeaux. It is full of exotic fruits and has a real sense of vibrancy that some accuse of being 'un-Bordeaux' but I think is an excellent example of what Pessac Leognan can achieve with close attention to detail in the vineyards.
Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte
Avenue de Smith-Haut-Lafitte, 33650 Martillac
Telephone: +33 (0) 5 57 83 11 22
www.smith-haut-lafitte.com