Welcome Aboard: Florence Cathiard, Co-owner of Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, and President of the Wine Tourism Board, Joins WTA Judging Team

In the Awards Year 2023-2024, the WTA Team is delighted to share that Florence Cathiard, Co-owner with her husband Daniel of the renowned Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte and a President of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Oenotourisme has joined the WTA Judging Team.

Florence Cathiard is “chevalier de l’ordre du mérite” and has been granted “Légion d’Honneur” by Alain Juppé. In 1990, Daniel and Florence sold all their business interests to buy Château Smith Haut Lafitte. Over a twoyear period, they invested massively in renovating both the winery buildings and the 18th century manor house built by George Smith, where they decided to live and to devote their energy to their newfound passion: making outstanding white and red wines.

In 2020 during the interview to Drinks+ Media Group Florence Cathiard mentioned: “We love our wines, and it should be like this. Château Smith Lafitte is 650 years old and we are very proud of it. We learn from our failures and therefore we get better, yet we want to pursue a typical terroir wine. Making a fancy wine outside the lines is probably a good bet for a small château/vineyard, but definitely not a good strategy for one of the top Classified Growth of Bordeaux like SHL.”

In 2023 launched with the Minister of Tourism a multilingual and hexagonal Gate – visitfrenchwine.com – giving access for the first time to all the wine regions of France, including also “unsung heroes”. Florence and her family have created a new wine tourism experience at the hot springs at Caudalie. Moreover, Florence has written a book entitled Art de Vigne (“Art of the Vine”) published by Editions de la Martinière-Aubanel and “Autour d’une bouteille” (Edition Elytis).

Cheers!

📷 Photos: @cathiardvineyard