Château Smith Haut Lafitte hands over reigns to next generation
Château Smith Haut Lafitte and Cathiard Vineyard have announced a new chapter, as the company strengthens the executive board and hands it to the next generation, with Florence Cathiard stepping into a supervisory role.
It announced that the executive board will now be chaired by Mathilde Thomas and Alice Tourbier, daughters of Florence and Daniel Cathiard, the former Olympic skiers who have owned the Pessac-Léognan Grand Cru Classé since 1990 and who bought the Rutherford-based estate in 2020.
Thomas, the founder of global skincare brand Caudalie, will leverage her expertise in international brand development and digital communication to strengthen the global profile of the wines and their brand image, with Tourbier bringing her experience as the owner of luxury hotel and spa chain Les Sources Hôtels to the estates.
Meanwhile, Florence Cathiard, who has been involved in the daily decisions of both estates for 35 years, will move to a new role as a co-chair of the supervisory board, along with her husband, where they will continue to guide the groups’ major strategic direction.
Tracey Dobbin MW will also join the board, alongside oenologist and chief executive officer Fabien Teitgen, who has led the technical and operation of Château Smith Haut Lafitte for more than 20 years, and deputy chief executive officer Ludovic Fradin, who has been responsible for the commercial strategy and external relations of the Cathiard family wineries.
These appointments are designed to order to support the transition and strengthen the management structure, maintaining its continuity and its commitment to the group’s strong environmental values and heritage.
Dobbin will bring her extensive experience in wine strategy international market and wine education to the operation, playing a key role in the coordination of the family estates in Bordeaux and Napa. The Canadian-born MW has worked in Bordeaux for the last 15 years, leading global strategy in wine communications, education, and brand development at Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, in addition to running a Bordeaux-based wine education company offering WSET® certifications and private wine tours across Europe, and co-owning a boutique wine importing agency in Canada, called Les 3 Cavistes.
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In addition to becoming an MW in 2020, she holds an MBA in wine marketing and management from INSEEC Bordeaux and an MSc from McMaster and Dalhousie Universities.
Dobbin said she was delighted to join the team, noting that the Cathiard family’s “vision, environmental commitments and ambition to strengthen the Bordeaux–Napa axis in support of their international profile fully resonate with my professional values.”
Teitgen works alongside his former protégé Justine Labbé, who is now based in Napa, with consultants Michel Rolland and oenologist Frederick Ammons.
Speaking to the drinks business in 2024 at a blind tasting comparing Cathiard to its Napa peers, Cathiard and Teitgen outlined their plans for Cathiard Estate. This has involved moving away from the high yields favoured by the previous owner towards better quality, more precise and polished wines. Since buying the estate, the team have renovated the vineyards, replanting blocks of Malbec with Cabernet Sauvignon and concentrating on preserving the freshness of the wines, while taming the naturally big tannins to make them more elegant.
Teitgen admitted that although the team grow the same varieties in Napa and Bordeaux, the two were “very different and it would be a mistake to try to do the same ‘recipe.”
“It was a case of starting with a blank slate, centred around tasting the grapes and wine, and understanding what’s happening [with the vines],” he told db.
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