2001 Smith Haut Lafitte

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Fabien Teitgen, who has been technical director here since 2001, vinified the 2003 with 70% to 80% whole clusters, then carried out a long but gentle cuvaison, keeping the fermentation temperature low and using only the most minimal pigeages (just a few minutes every two days) to keep the cap wet. The estate also experimented in 2003 by doing a portion of the alcoholic fermentation in barriques (60 barrels' worth, to be exact), using the method introduced by Girolate, except that Smith Haut Lafitte took advantage of a large stainless steel entry point on the front of its barrels through which the fruit could be more easily inserted. While owners Florent and Daniel Cathiard, as well as Teitgen, are not convinced that alcoholic fermentation in barriques is an especially valuable innovation, there's little doubt that their young 2003 is an especially pliant, sweet, fruit-driven wine. The yield was a very low 25 hectoliters per hectare, alcohol is close to 13%, and the pH is a high 3.9.

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The Cathiards have taken this chateau to the next level with the promotion of Fabien Teitgen from vineyard boss to technical director beginning in 2001. Teitgen looks for fruit that's ripe but not overripe, as he's after elegant wines with a lightness of touch. Under the direction of Daniel Cathiard, he has brought changes in vinification as well. Beginning with vintage 2002, a good 50% of the grapes went into the fermenter uncrushed, with extraction relying more on punching down of the cap rather than on pump-overs.

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Florence Cathiard describes this property's 2001 as "a wine of finish, not of attack." All of the malolactic fermentation here takes place in barriques, and the lees are stirred until December. The Cathiards picked their white grapes later than usual in 2001 and had the last of them in just before a storm on September 22.

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