The Cathiard family abandoned mechanical harvesting in favour of handpicking when they bought the estate.

To avoid oxidisation, the freshly-picked bunches of grapes are put onto small 20-25 kg trays.

Specially designed ergonomic hods hold these trays until such time as they are taken to the trailer.

This system of ergonomic hods developed by Daniel Cathiard is based on a type used by sherpas in the Himalayas.

It enables full hods to be exchanged with empty ones upon arrival at the trailer without crushing the grapes before they reach the cellar.

While the bunches are being handpicked, an initial sorting takes place to ensure that only the ripest, healthiest grapes are used, as befits a great wine.

A second manual sorting is done after destemming on a sorting table downstream from the destemmer. This eliminates any remaining vegetable matter overlooked in the previous sorting.
 

Château Smith Haut Lafitte
33650 BORDEAUX-MARTILLAC FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0)5 57 83 11 22 - Fax : +33 (0)5 57 83 11 21
smith-haut-lafitte@smith-haut-lafitte.com