At Château Smith Haut Lafitte, all the Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Sémillon have been harvested … The red grapes harvest started last Monday and we will have nice surprises … Despite the spring frost (with fortunately limited consequences on Château Smith Haut Lafitte’s terroir, but it remains in our minds…) the drought in June and a mild summer (cool and dry) promise a beautiful vintage.

Comments by Fabien Teitgen, General and Technical Manager

« Our white grapes harvest was shorter than last year (2 weeks instead of 3). The cold weather in late April slowed down the growth of our vines and generated a heterogeneity in our clusters: we had to go 3 times in our plots to collect only what was perfectly ripe… 70 people came to harvest our 11hectares of white grapes, against 40 in 2016. It is a vintage of small quantity but for sure of good quality. There is a very nice evolution in recent days with ripe fruits and a beautiful aromatic. The week before, we were more on tension and freshness (with acidities near pH 3.1). The summer was rather dry, we did not have big storms, our vine had only slight hydric stresses, but no significant blockages. In fact, the cloudy but dry weather has preserved the acidity of our whites! «