2005 Smith Haut Lafitte

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"The color came quickly during the fermentation but not the volume or the flavor," said technical director Fabien Teitgen. "We macerated with minimal movement, doing very slow pumpovers because the tannins from the seeds were not ripe enough, and even after three weeks there wasn't much extraction. The volume only came in the fourth week and afterwards. But a lot of wines in 2007 were overextracted: they don't have the volume and concentration to support their tannins." Like some of his more successful colleagues in 2007, owner Daniel Cathiard maintained that his estate could not have achieved a good maturity level in its fruit had vine yields been higher; Smith Haut Lafitte produced just 35 hectoliters per hectare, he told me.

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"Our idea in 2006 was to make a harmonious wine," said technical director Fabien Teitgen. "We carried out a gentle but long extraction at a relatively low temperature." Teitgen told me that he did a bit of batonnage "but just once or twice in all," but then he only stirs the lees when he believes that "there's a problem between the wine and the wood." The estate harvested from September 20 until October 5, added Teitgen, "focusing on picking the best parts, ripe, for our first wine. It wasn't easy to get good maturity this year."

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Technical director Fabien Teitgen had not yet added any press wine to this chateau's wonderfully concentrated young 2005, made from a crop level of 35 hectoliters per hectare. The harvest here was late for the area, beginning on September 24 for the merlot and lasting until October 10. Not surprisingly, the young 2005 has a fairly high pH of 3.8 and 13.3% alcohol. The 35% merlot component seems especially successful here. Co-owner Florence Cathiard expressed the opinion that good water retention in the clay subsoil at Smith Haut Lafitte (as at some other Pessac-Leognan properties, such as Haut-Bailly) made a big difference in this drought year.

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