Daniel Cathiard (Château Smith Haut Lafitte)

Above: (First image): Owner and winemaker Daniel Cathiard posing in front of our lenses. (Below): The poured wines of its Grand Vin, as screened by a lovely collateral postcard.

In the nice ambience of French centric Les Brasseries, 酒 Jiuwine.com spent time with the face behind of one of Pessac-Lèognan finest label, the Château Smith Haut Lafitte.

Mr. Daniel Cathiard (as seen in the above picture), is one of the owners of Château Smith Haut Lafitte is not new to the International wine scene, having traveled to the cities of Singapore, Macau, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong to reinforce and refresh his wines in front of a captive audience.

Daniel and his wife, Florence is widely credited for being the miracle behind Château Smith Haut Lafitte when they took over some 20 years ago, resurrecting not the dust or earth, but the vineyards, the wine, and the property with the assistance of team player technical director Fabien Teitgen. Their daughter; Mathilde now runs an additional spa, hotel, restaurants, a line of cosmetics.

We put forward 8 questions to Daniel about his wines, and his views on the generic Bordeaux market and likely impact on our interest and spend in our part of the wine world.

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酒： Daniel, you took over Smith-Haut-Lafite since the 1990s. How have you been dealing with this responsibility? Is it difficult to continue your success iconic story?

Daniel: It was rather easy to improve the quality after we took over in 1990 because SHL has many great potential. For example getting back to traditional ploughing of the vines; hand harvesting or fermentation in small Wooden vats … there are many factors and details to go into while keeping our best, but they all add up which gave us huge quality difference!

Well to date, there are still so many improvements still to do and improve further…. I don’t worry for bettering the quality again and again.

酒: Encapsulate your winemaking style in a few words.

Daniel: I would prefer to think of my style as one of natural, elegance, complexity, and definitely a wine worth ageing gracefully.

酒: Pessoc Leognan has been best known for making better whites than reds. What are your views on this?

Daniel: It was true in 2007 we made better whites, but is not the same case every year. 2005 was better for reds. So was 2003. Again, the climate matters a lot and plays a bigger role before man.

酒: What can you say about the ageability of your wines?

Daniel: It depends of the vintage year. Some vintages are very long keepers like 2000 and 2005. While there are others you better drink within the next 10 years like the 1999, 2002. In general, SHL wines in white and red should age pretty well and gracefully too …

酒: What effect do you think global warming could have on Bordeaux wines?

Daniel: Global Warming is here to stay and I would say it is not a problem and never a concern for Bordeaux winemakers. We make a better wine every time when we have a hot and sunny summer.

酒: What do you see in the future for Bordeaux wines?

Daniel: We will continue to improve on our reputation while maintaining and improving our quality of wine.

酒: Is Bordeaux wines becoming more expensive? What do you see in the Chinese market (Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong … Singapore) for your wines? How have their taste evolved since then?

Daniel: The Chinese market will continue to be an emerging and booming market because our wines fit so well with Chinese food. We feel so especially for white wines, which are an ideal accompaniment with seafood dishes, like your steamboat or crabs.

酒: Looking forward how was 2006 and 2007 vintage in Pessoc Leognan, or Bordeaux at large?

Daniel: The 2006 vintage was truly a Bordeaux classic styled wine. There is a lot of finesse and elegance coming from this vintage … as for 2007; we believe it will be in the same way while the whites have more complexity and freshness.

Click here to view: Château Smith Haut Lafitte.

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Photographs and text by Daniel. Hit us with your best shots; we’ll try our best to listen. Send your inquiries or comments here or via email to jiuwine@gmail.com.