One of my wine buddies visited Smith-Haut Lafitte last summer in Bordeaux and became friends with Daniel Cathiard, owner of SHL. Mr. Cathiard invited him to come taste at what was previously Flora Springs Estate, purchased in 2020 before Covid shut down the world. We spent 3+ hours with the Cathiard’s touring the property, tasting the wines and enjoying great company.
We visited the winery on a Sunday, hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Cathiard, who could not be more hospitable to a group of mostly strangers. They made it perfectly clear to us that they want to establish a family owned winery and not a conglomerate.
I actually have previously visited and tasted at Flora Springs in May of 2019. There are definitive changes with new ownership at the winery.
They have what they call the new winery and the old winery building. The new winery building is on the left hand side of the property after you drive across the bridge entering the estate. The old winery building consists of the original caves and has just a small amount of new barrels as they only have the 21’ and 22’ vintages currently in barrek; but with the SHL logo on the exterior of the barrels.
We were hosted by Mr. Cathiard, Daniel Cathiard and his wife Florence. The winery is not currently open for business. They literally do not even have a credit card terminal to take an order as of our visit. Florence noted they have a niece who will be running the estate and they will be visiting several times a year from BDX to stay on property and help with the winery.
They will be using all estate fruit for the wines, no sourced fruit.
Mr. Cathiard has a unique Land Rover with a Tesla engine that has bench seating in the rear they will have guests driven through the vineyards and property on. This will likely be for VIP guests only.
They are using double truncunated vats in the new winery building, which was retrofitted. The vats were imported from France. The equipment delivery was delayed due to Covid and supply chain issues as well as port congestion. There is quite an improvements investment in the winery and vineyard by the Cathiard’s.
Catwalks above tanks were installed. The tank sizes alternate to make room for more wine exposure at the top and bottom of the vats. They think this is a unique approach in Napa.
The wines are punched down unless they want to extract, then they pump over.
Per Mr. Cathiard, the rules to make wine here are simpler than Bordeaux, however the rules for construction are much more difficult here including the permit process.
They ripped out Malbec near the driveway as you enter the estate and will replant cab.
Cooperage: They want to build their own barrels inside the winery. They are waiting on permits from the county or city for approval, however as they don’t think anyone else in Napa does this the approval process is taking a long time.
Per Mr. Cathiard: Lafite Rothschild tried to buy Shafer but had French arrogance and lost the bid to the Korean company who purchased Shafer.
They made this perfectly clear and repeated many times during our 3 hours with them, they don’t want to be another winery owner. They are all about family and not conglomerate ownership.
There is a very high investment to turn the property around. As I noted I visited in 2019, you can clearly see the transformation of the property and the design stamp of the Cathiard’s within the facilities.
The winery was empty when they bought it. There was no wine and no brand as Flora Springs kept the name and the wine they had previously made.
They are making some wine in a bigger cask; more interesting trying for less taste of wood. Foudre’s being used for some barrels.
They make the barrels themselves however as previously noted they are waiting on permitting for approval within their facility. To the Cathiard’s, it makes sense to send staves that are finished and make the barrels here and toast on site v finished barrels that are more costly to ship overseas.
Florence redid the lighting in the caves. She is very fond of art and likes the ambiance.
They noted that our visit and for others visiting before they officially launch in March 23’, this is a slow opening. They are still waiting for furniture from the port of LA to get delivered for the winery.
There will be 3 different bottles offered for their 2020 release.
Hora- Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec. BDX blend
Founding Brothers- A tribute to the people who started the winery here, 2 brothers. From England and Scotland. Remy brothers (sp?)
Main wine- Cathiard Vineyard - top of the hill 100% Cabernet
2020 Hora-good blend. Can drink now. $125 per bottle.
2020 Founding Brothers. $225 - Dense fruit. We all really enjoyed this bottling.
2020 Cathiard Vineyad. $395 - drunk over a 2 hour period. Average age of vines is 38 years. Much more serious wine. Vines are on slopes throughout the property.
My notes:
2020 Cathiard Vineyard- layered, homerun wine. Extremely smooth finish. This does not scream Napa to me. I detected no smoke taint, however I am not a professional wine reviewer. They do have some scores in and I believe one of them was a 96, which they are very excited about for their first vintage. They believe they can get this wine into the top 10 in Napa sooner than later.
They literally just determined pricing yesterday.
They will go through distributors in other states and will sell direct in CA. I may have quoted this wrong, FYI. They are still learning the nuances of selling wine in the states as it is different than BDX where they sell to negociants.
They will sell the wine worldwide but predict that most selling will take place in the USA.
Napa is very different than Bordeaux where 5 years is still too young to drink wine.
From Mrs. Cathiard - 2022 SHL. Banner vintage. High heat. Smaller berries.
100% organic. Have to wait 2 years for cerification.
9000 bottles made of Cathiard
15K bottles made of Founding Brothers
30K Bottles made of Hora (goddess of the seasons)
VIP tastings in the residence. This is their house where they live on site. We finished our tasting up here after tasting below in the tasting room. Mr Cathiard graciously poured all our wines.
They want to be as dry farmed as possible but not sure they can be fully dry farmed. They are still learning with nature. They can’t change too fast or could harm the vines that are used to being watered.
Daniel Cathiard at 80 years old is extremely fit. We walked the vineyards and property and he did so without breaking a sweat, as we climbed over 500 feet in elevation and back down again to the main residence. Our hike throughout the vineyard from the residence was over 40 minutes up some steep hills and back down and around. They made us work for our wine, but we were blessed with great hosts for the afternoon.
I did not feel there was any smoke taint detected in the 2020s, again I’m no professional reviewer and can only share my own opinion and notes.
They are not selling wine yet. They have no way to take payments as I noted and expect to open the winery some time in March. As they purchased the winery in 2020 and had no hold over wine from Flora Springs they are excited to finally sell some wine from the property and start the return on their investment.
I asked permission to post pictures and my review. I was a little concerned about scooping the professional wine critics who haven’t been out to visit the vineyard since the acquisition. This was an extremely unique tasting for us as a group asking questions and enjoying each other’s company for 3+hours. I have no doubt that the Cathiard’s will be successful with the winery as they have built their businesses over the years. They are very proud of the winery, the art, the furniture and of course the wines they are producing. We will see how they do as 2020 is going to be a tough vintage to sell due to smoke taint fear and coming onto the market with a $395 bottle as a “new” winery will be tough. I am not comfortable personally with the $395 bottle price point. If they had wine for sale we would have purchased some of the Founding Brothers bottling to take home for sure and maybe 1-2 of the Cathiard but we did not buy any wine.
Daniel and Florence Cathiard
